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Saturday, November 24, 2012

Danger on the Bus

School buses can be dangerous places for kids on the spectrum. A previous post described a choking incident on a bus in Broward County, Florida.  The Sun-Sentinel reports:
Two Broward school transportation employees lost their jobs Tuesday because of an incident where a 13-year-old autistic student was allegedly choked by an attendant on a school bus.
The School Board, in its first meeting of a new term, fired bus attendant Darryl Blue, 48, of Fort Lauderdale, who was charged with aggravated child abuse on Nov. 7, and bus driver Chelsi Edwards, 24, who was not criminally charged. Blue was fired for "disciplinary termination," and Edwards was still on probation, allowing the district to fire her without cause. Neither could be reached for comment.
A couple of weeks ago, The Orange County Register reported on a case in Anaheim, California, in which a driver forgot about a severely disabled teen and left him alone on a bus for hours.
Anaheim Union High School District is investigating how an autistic 15-year-old student was left inside a school bus for about six hours.
The Savanna High student, who is unable to speak and has seizures, sat inside the vehicle parked at the district bus yard for most of the school day, said the teen's mother.
The incident occurred Sept. 11. Temperatures that day hit the mid-80s. The student, Patrick Hoang, appeared physically fine when he returned home that day, mother Lucie Hoang-Ngo said. But she worries her son may have been frightened or suffered other emotional harm from being left alone.
"I just don't know how something like this could have happened," Hoang-Ngo said. "I am angry because no one is giving us any answers."
A TV report from KCAL: