Parents say school district never alerted them to bus incident

SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — Parents say their children were injured in a school bus incident and they weren't told about it. Now they're demanding answers.

"Some had knots and bruises, neck injuries and back injuries," Angela Lewis told Channel 2’s Carl Willis.

Lewis said that was the scene at the hospital after a school bus incident that happened Monday morning.

The Griffin-Spalding County School district described the incident as minor. The district said the bus was traveling less than 1 mph when it bumped into a dirt bank.

"I don't think it was minor, because if it was minor these children wouldn’t have to be going to the emergency room," Lewis said.

She contacted Willis not long after she learned that her nephew was involved in the incident.

Lewis said she wasn't alerted about it until about seven hours later.

"No matter what size the accident, we're supposed to get a phone call. Something like this happens at 7:30 in the morning and you're calling me at 2:30 in the afternoon?" Lewis told Willis.

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Her nephew, Moore Elementary School student Royal Clay, said he was sitting in the back of the bus when the driver tried to back out of a tight spot on Lexington Avenue.

He said he hit his head. He was checked out by a school nurse and sent back to class.

"It was hurting but it was going all the way down to my neck, all the way down to my back," Royal said.

"That's when they should have sent him home," Lewis said.

A school representative said alerts went out at 10:30 that morning and said if parents didn't get them it's only because their contacts aren't up to date in the system.

A transportation official said injuries weren't reported until days after the incident.

But parents claim that's because there was a lack of communication.

"What if it happens again? It could be worse," Lewis said.

Cox Media Group