Last-minute bus policy change sparks outrage among Collierville parents
by: Jessica Knox
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Parents are upset after learning that their children can no longer ride the school bus this academic school year, even though the bus stop is right in front of their home.
Collierville School Systems contracts their school buses with Durham School Services. This year, Durham is changing the students who are allowed to ride the bus to and from school, making many parents angry.
Durham Transportation is telling parents they now must be at least 1.5 miles walking distance away from the school, making many children as little as three and a half yards shy.
Kelsey Green told us kids had to walk past her house and through her yard to get on the bus.
Green’s 10-year-old daughter will now have to walk 1.49 miles from her home on Simmonsridge Drive to Collierville Elementary School.
“They are going a far distance down Peterson Lake and this morning I saw no crossing guard at Powell, which is a major intersection for them to crossover,” said Green.
She tells us she received an email 16 hours before the first day of school that her daughter could no longer be a bus rider because of the distance.
“Every map I have looked at states 1.5 but apparently, they go by the hundredth of a mile and we are 1.498,” Green said. “Had we been notified in May, we could have made arrangements, but now it just leads us to miss work.”
Many parents say it also adds stress because it’s dangerous for their child to walk alone in unfamiliar neighborhoods.
“There’s about eight to nine turns. He’s going through an entire neighborhood that’s not our neighborhood,” said Whitney Casebolt.
We reached out to Durham School Services, the Transportation Department for the Municipals, and Collierville Schools, but we have not heard back.
“It’s not Collierville Schools but at the same time they contracted this company to transport our children and so it’s their responsibility,” said Green.
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