After the French school board grappled with how to reassure angry parents after a Halifax school bus left their children more than 4½ hours late one day without explanation, the board's executive director suggested they hold a meet-and-greet where affected students would be given. A treat bag from the bus company, while parents can voice their concerns.
“We clearly do not want this to turn into anger for angry parents, but hope it will be seen as a positive gesture,” wrote Michel Collett in an email to the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial and other officials of Transco, the bus company. .
“Alternatively, we let the incident fade, and we try to exceed the parents' expectations.”
At least two school board members requested a meeting, but none took place.
One of those members, Marc Pinet, suggested “holding meetings in almost all (French-language) schools. There are (busing) problems everywhere.”
The email, written a week after the Sept. 9, 2024 incident, is included in a 261-page access-to-information package obtained by CBC News.
The documents reveal the anger and anxiety parents felt as they panicked about not knowing where their children were for hours, how officials responded to a situation that drew national media attention, as well as school board member Joe's reminder. The bus service was “already a big problem, it's not going to improve, and in fact, it's going to get worse,” he warned.
CSAP spokeswoman Stephanie Comeau told the CBC that despite Transco initially suggesting a public meeting, the company did not want to move forward with the proposal. He said the board met personally with all families who requested to do so.
Where the bus traveled remains unclear, but a timeline provided to the board by Transco on September 12 provides some insight into how the incident unfolded.
The company has a regular bus driver unavailable for route C107, so a replacement had to be brought in. The reason for the driver's unavailability is unclear.
While Transco communicated initial delays through a web portal called BusPlanner, attempts to call parents were also hampered because “unfortunately several phone numbers were found to be incorrect or out of service.”
A parent, whose children usually arrive home at 3:05 p.m. every day, was initially told The bus will be 25 minutes late, and then an hour late.
See | Halifax mother demands answers after school bus leaves young children 4½ hours late:
Long delays — and a lack of communication from school and transportation officials — prompted some parents to call the police. Paul Palmeter has a story.
The second driver did not know the route and caused further delays due to traffic. Another driver was brought in to take the students home. The timeline shows that all students have reached home by 7:44 p.m
At the time of the incident, a system to allow parents to track bus location in real time was not in place, as the buses fell under the Halifax Regional Center education umbrella. Transco is one of the three operators of HRCE.
The system is expected to be operational by February 2025, according to a recent email from Collette.
The school board does not issue maps showing the route traveled
The documents show that Transco provided the CSAP with a map of the route traveled, but that disclosing the information would be an “unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of third parties.”
The CBC has appealed this.
The document shows that the first email sent by a CSAP official about the missing bus on the day of the incident was at 7:38 p.m., six minutes before all students arrived home.
'concerned state'
In an email, Collette informed some school board members of a “concerning situation” involving busing for students at Ecole Mer et Monde in south-end Halifax. Collette said some students had not yet arrived home and police were involved.
The next day — before CSAP and Transco apologized to parents — a parent emailed school board officials calling it “appalling and unacceptable” that neither side had sent anything.
“I don't know why you choose to continue this service or how you can expect us to trust CSAP,” the parent wrote.
Parents' names and their email addresses are redacted.
letter of apology
A letter sent by CSAP to parents of all students at the school on Sept. 10 apologized for the bus company's lack of communication. The board also asked Transco to review the emergency communication protocol, work with Transco to notify all CSAP families of this protocol, and directly contact the families of students on the bus to respond to the incident.
The board also sent a letter on behalf of Transco, which apologized for the delay, attributing it to “several unforeseen events”. It said it is taking steps to ensure this does not happen again, such as hiring more drivers who can respond quickly to delays and hiring more administrative staff to provide better communication with parents.
None of the letters clarified what caused the incident.
School board member Kathleen Howlett criticized Transco's letter.
“The details of the incident are not detailed and corrective actions are things that should already be in place,” she wrote in French in an email to Colette and another person.
The incident attracted national media attention
Board member Mark Pinet was also upset.
“The situation is attracting national media attention,” he wrote in French in an email to Collette and some other board members. “We need to talk about it.”
Emailed letters to parents elicited many responses. Some parents said they were arranging carpool options by pulling their kids off the bus. One parent said that because they were driving their child to school, they were 45 to 60 minutes late to work every day.
One parent said their children were “hungry, thirsty and traumatized” on the bus and peed on themselves. Parents said their children were afraid to ride the bus and needed counseling. They asked for taxi tickets, a request that Colette refused.
“At this time we are unfortunately unable to provide a courtesy (taxi) transportation option as we are currently providing transportation via the school bus,” Collette wrote in a Sept. 16 email.
'Are you going to lose my children again?' Parents ask in email
A parent took their concerns to the Minister of Education asking Becky Druhan to take action.
“Is the bus my children took safe?” The parent wrote in French. “Are you going to lose my children again?”
In an email sent the evening of the incident, one parent described what it was like to call the police to report their children missing.
“I cried when I reported what they were wearing … what their hair was like,” the email said.
Parents said they cried as they walked around looking for the bus.
“I pray to God it doesn't happen again,” the parent wrote. “Please help all the parents who went through hell today to find their children.”
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