I don't suppose it would occur to any of you clowns, that this could have been a special needs child, riding on a small bus. Man, it sure would have taken a HUGE amount of effort for that bus driver and aide to walk clear back to the back of the bus to make sure that it was clear! Thankless job or not, our children are your responsibility! There are alot of thankless jobs in this world, you should just be greatful that you have one! And it probably would never occur to any of you that maybe this kid is picked up out in the country, at the butt crack of dawn either. So yeah, maybe he did fall asleep on the bus. Don't make this issue about why the kid fell asleep on the bus! Don't make this an issue as to why he's not getting enought sleep, because that is totally beside the point! Don't deflect the real blame here, and that is with a bus driver, and bus aide that are clearly careless, negligent, and overall LAZY!!!

The driver works for VanGalder and the aide works for the Janesville School District. My guess is if the aide worked for VanGalder that dismissal would have been immediate as well.

School busses only seat 77.

I was a bus driver myself and I always made a check of all the seat and rest room. I drove the bigger buses with a rest room.

Since this is a elementary school child that means that it was more than likely the bus driver and bus aides secound round of kids that morning. In Janesville the bus drivers first pick up the Jr. High and High School kids between 6:30-6:45, and then they get dropped off between 7:15-7:30. At that time the drivers are sent back out for their second round of kids which are the elementary school kids. They are picked up between 7:30-7:45 and dropped off between 7:50-7:55.

At night it gets even better! They pick up the elementary school kids and depending on what bus route the kids are on they may be taken to a Jr. High to run around outside for about 20 minutes until the middle school kids get out of school. At that time the elementary school kids either get back on their original busses, or sometimes switch busses before getting back on the bus with the Jr. HIgh kids before they are taken home.

Bob, I don't know where to start.
1, Why did you ever take a job that cut in to your day? The few hours in the morning and then a few hours later in the day. You make it sound like you had something big and important that was being disrupted?
2, No, driving a bus is not for someone short on tolerance for a bunch of energetic kids who are screaming and throwing things. I've done my stint of managing groups of kids in various settings and there's a few I would have liked to never see again but I found if you understand they are kids with undeveloped personalities you can get around the challenging ones.
3. How do bus companies find anyone to do your self described hell on earth job? Consider no job at all as an option. Or how about it as a second job to supliment a night shift job? Or a retired person that wants to get out and make a difference.

I'm not criticizing you at all when I say this, but I'm glad you are not a bus driver anymore. Any kid that rode a bus to school surely had at least one mean driver and you seem to fit that mold. Certainly being around a bunch of screaming and unruly kids is not for everyone but some folks love kids and can even be a positive influence on making a kid's school day start off on the right note.

Hmmmm...

Quote from NBC15... Lincoln Elementary School also received a phone message that morning, from the parent, that the student had missed the bus http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Elem...

Oh I can’t let this one get by.

I drove school bus over the last 35 years on three different stints, with three different school bus outfits, for a couple years each, to bring in some extra funds for my family income cause. Instead of going on unemployment in crappy economies, which few of you even know existed…, I took a crappy job.

Good readers, I would live in a cardboard box by the Rock River before I would ever drive a school bus again. What an Orwellian nightmare – cameras on board; no-tolerance rules; the bus driver is an extension of the punitive law enforcement system; 110 kids ride the bus (and of course they are all well-behaved); if the driver is lucky they make ten bucks an hour; the driver works about three and a half hours a day, they work a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the afternoon; the whole work day is ruined for said three and a half hours; about 110 ten kids equals about 500 million dollars in liability; plus, the big bus equals about 10 million dollars in liability. Oh, and did I mention the driver gets ten bucks an hour.

“School bus driver” was a “new norm” benefitless part-time, no-dignity job, long before (decades before) this Great Recession came along that many of you anonymous posters spend a great deal of time apologizing for and claiming does not exist.

It is amazing these situations are not ubiquitous in our culture. Thank your drivers every time you see them that they go about their lousy jobs with no thanks and take all the aforementioned risk in stride.

Call me cynical, but how do bus companies get drivers to buy into that insanity at all?

I am sorry for the child's bad experience; although it sounds like said child slept through it. If it was my kid however, I would have had a chat with him/her and mention that it is part of life to maybe help the driver by staying alert if possible.

Bob Keith – It is obvious none of you anonymous comment posters have ever worked at what you are commenting about. I look forward to your fine anonymous literary skewering.

Again with these bus companies...when are they going to get it together

loriakared said, "I'm wondering what's going on in this child's home that he slept for 3 hours right away in the morning. Poor kid."

I thought the same thing. And my second thought was that teachers get blamed for poor test scores while having to teach half-awake children. Something that is a more common occurrence than one would want to believe.

I'm wondering what's going on in this child's home that he slept for 3 hours right away in the morning. Poor kid.

The bus aide should be fired as well. Both failed this child and put his/her life at risk!

We didn't have buses when I went to first grade. We had to walk 1.5 miles both to and from school -- uphill both ways. Glad everything turned out OK for this kid.

Two different times my child has been within five minutes late to his first hour class, and I get a phone call about 7:30 at night. I am hoping that it is different in elementary school, but I fortunately haven't had experience with it yet.

How horrible for the child and family involved. It is so sad that policies and procedures are already in place, but it is even sadder that they were not followed.

Seems it would have been sorta cold on the bus. Good thing not sub zero temps right now!!

SarahB- Wmtv 15 story explains why no one missed the child, school was left a message that child missed the bus, and parents phone was not to be working....strange?
Sorry I don't know how to post a link.
I also wondered why the bus aide wasn't fired, Isnt that part of the duties of an aide is to see the kids on and OFF the bus?

Well the bus company definently screwed up thank god the child is safe but this is not the first time something like this has happend before.

You can bet it won't happen there again ! Poor little bugger ,probably was scared to death. Where were the parents ? Did they not worry ? Why did the school not let them know ? I thought the school checked or called on children that were not present when they were not contacted by the parent for being absent,I guess that was the old days !

Between this incident and the widely publicized incident in Milton how is any parent supposed to feel confident about their kid riding the bus? Incompetance.

Perhaps they could put a clipboard at the back of the bus that has to be signed after every shift. That way the driver has to walk the bus to sign it..

Pretty easy to do a quick walkthrough to see if anyone or anything was left behind. Since we know this happens from time to time, it should be common sense - we shouldn't need a policy or a procedure for it. Glad he or she was unharmed.

I'm just sayin... i'm thinking you shoulda walked to school :)

im surprised the aide is not fired to , they are just as much at fault

This must have somthing to with that "no child left behind law" LOL

Glad things turned out ok.....

Was anybody fired when I was left on the bus in kindergarten?
NO.
Was anybody fired when the bus driver closed the door on my dad's leg and took off?
NO.
I'm just sayin'...

No comment.

We can comment??!!
WOW- must have been sleeping, like they said, or the child would have come of the bus freaked out a bit. oops!!

Poor kid, glad he was able to sleep through it.