MV R-5 bus incident raises parent ire

Injured student, school response prompts driver, process scrutiny
A spirited exchange over a bus crash resulting in student injury not reported to parents came to light at the April 17 meeting of the Mt. Vernon school board.
Superintendent Scott Cook reported that on the afternoon of April 10, two buses were idling at the intersection of Hwy. 174 and 39. Bus 15 bumped into the rear of Bus 10. That set off a series of administrative issues that further compounded the situation.
“We fell short,” Cook said. “We didn’t have an immediate response to parents. Several assumptions were made. I did not learn about it until well into the evening. It was our shortfall. We can’t have the assumptions that were made.”
More significantly, one bus rider, Arwen Lawrence, age 9, reported bouncing off the interior wall of the bus twice. Later that night she told her parents, Russell and Mandy Lawrence, that she could not raise her arm. They took her to Cox Hospital South in Springfield, where she was diagnosed as having a broken humerus bone, between her shoulder and elbow, and the X-ray found a spot on her collarbone that may have reflected a break. Doctors placed her in a sling and brace.
The injuries were not identified at the scene. Law enforcement was not called to investigate the incident. The bus completed its deliveries, running approximately an hour late.
Word reached the elementary school that one of the buses was running an hour late. Principal Christina West reported sending out an alert about the bus delay, but said she did not know why. Cook said West’s action was the district’s default response. “You have every right to complain,” he told Mandy Lawrence.
Cook went on to say his office should have someone assigned to respond to such an incident in the absence of the superintendent. School board president Danny Bowling agreed that law enforcement should have been called to the scene immediately. “We must get that cleaned up,” Bowling said.
What exactly happened on the bus was also disputed. According to reports from bus riders, the rear bus collided with the front bus with some velocity. Rachel Sooter, the bus manager for the First School service, which has run Mt. Vernon’s buses since Gale Webb retired, said there was a red wasp in the bus. Sooter said the driver, “highly allergic” to wasp stings, was trying to open a window to release the wasp when the incident took place. Her foot came off the brake, enabling the bus, at an idle, to roll forward at 15 miles per hour.
Mandy Lawrence said another parent told her, based on the report from another child, that the bus went forward “fairly fast,” suggesting the driver hit the accelerator pedal. Bowling, who also has a commercial driver’s license, responded that the brake and accelerator on a bus are fairly close together, and a foot sliding off sideways could easily cause acceleration.
“From here forward, I think law enforcement needs to investigate and find out what’s going on,” Bowling said.
Russell Lawrence went further, noting no drug test had been taken of the driver, as required under federal law in such cases for CDL drivers. The bus manager argued the criteria prompting such a test had not been met.
Cook said no comparable situation had taken place in his 15 years with the district.
The Lawrences posted an invitation on social media for other parents to share their concerns, and reported 15 responded with similar stories.
The board went into closed session with the Lawrences over related issues. Russell Lawrence said he asked the school board about covering his daughter’s medical expenses. He reported the board said the matter was not their responsibility, but instead should be addressed by First School. Lawrence recounted how First School failed to respond to his previous inquiries. He added he retained legal counsel from a Springfield firm which he identified and that the district could expect a lawsuit if the matter was not resolved.
“We don’t want to go to First School,” Lawrence told the school board in open session. “I called them. I heard nothing from them. I would like to hear some action from the school board’s side.”
In addition, Lawrence recounted previous complaints made about First School, particularly about heat in the buses. He presented the school board with records from a thermometer he placed in the backpack worn by his son, Asher, on previous occasions that showed measurements over time. He said the thermometer showed temperatures in the bus rose over 90 degrees, and that his son had shown heat stress several times, even throwing up. First School responded that some windows have been lowered a few inches, according to video records, though it’s unclear how effective that has been.
Lawrence made other complaints about the driver in Bus 15, including allegations of abusive behavior, in his view. He also questioned the driver’s practice of backing up the bus onto Hwy. 174, known as a frequently traveled thoroughfare. After the Lawrences left the closed session, the board continued discussions with First School representative Sooter.
In open session, Lawrence concluded his remarks, “I understand you are under contract [with First School]. It’s not OK to have students not safe.”
“I think we can all agree on that,” said Cook.