First day Birchwood bus ruckus

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP — What if it was your child on the bus and all of a sudden a woman who claims to be an “aunt” requests a kindergarten student to be released to her. Her name is not on the emergency cards and the child doesn’t have a note from the parent saying this is the person he or she should go with after school. How would you want the school to react? On Monday, Aug. 31, after the first day of the new school year had ended, this very incident occurred and the bus driver for the Ding-Del Elementary School followed protocol, refusing to allow the child to leave the bus at the Birchwood Lakes Community. “We have a policy that only the parent or authorized adult can pick up a kindergartener at the bus stop,” stated Marvin Eversdyke, DV director of Support Services. “The driver erred on the side of safety.” The result was what officials and bystanders have described as “a ruckus for almost 45 minutes, not allowing the bus to leave,” and delaying other students being dropped off. The child’s mother eventually was contacted and parents on the scene, as well as community security were able to calm the down the excited aunt. “We have an emergency card system, which tells the district who can pick up the children from school and the bus stop, this lady’s name was not on the card... This week the cards would be being updated and her name would be added and updated,” Eversdyke said. Rohner Bus Company was also contacted about this story and their spokesman declined to comment other than stating, “the school district is handling the situation and there wasn’t any damage sustained to the bus.” No charges were pressed against the aunt for her outburst and the names of the people involved were withheld by the district to protect the privacy of the student and her family.