Bus Never Arrives for Deaf Students

Bus Never Arrives for Deaf Students

September 2, 2011

Emily Lopez

FOX 4 News

Adapted for Web by Tracy DeLatte | myFOXdfw.com

DALLAS – A couple of special needs students are supposed to catch the bus to
school every day.

But their parents said that’s not what’s happening.

Fourteen-year-old Courtney Alladin was looking forward to the new school
year at J.L. Long Middle School but he missed the first six days of class.

“I was mad. It was six days,” he said.

His mother Tracey Alladin said the bus never picked him up and she had no
other way to get him to school.

“I don’t have transportation right now. My car is down so that’s why I
couldn’t get him to school,” she said.

Courtney is deaf and receives special services at the middle school,
services which are not offered at other schools.

After five days of calls to the school, the district and the bus service,
Alladin said she had enough and walked to one of the bus depots located
right behind her house.

“I told them I was gonna call FOX 4 News,” she said. “On Tuesday they
hurried up and picked him up.”

Across town at Herbert Marcus Elementary, Sylvia Ramirez is facing the same
problem.

Her 8-year-old daughter, who is also deaf and gets specialized instruction,
has yet to be picked up once for school.

“They haven’t picked her up. We’ve talked to numerous people. Nobody seems
to be able to do anything,” Ramirez said.

She and her husband have been taking turns taking their daughter to school.

“It’s just very frustrating that they don’t seem to care or do anything
about it,” she said.

Dallas County Schools, which operates the bus services, said it relies on
information from the school district to determine which students need to be
picked up.

A spokeswoman would not discuss specific cases and would not answer
questions about how many other student were affected.

Instead, she issued a statement that said the bus service is evaluating its
transportation services rigorously, investigating what happened and working
closely with the school district.

Source:

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/education/090211-bus-never-arrives-for-deaf-students

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