Second day of bus problems for Atlanta students

ATLANTA — Atlanta parents upset after school bus problems made their kids late for the first day of class woke up to more problems on the second day of class.

Students waiting for a bus to Inman Middle School and Grady High School told Channel 2 photographer Alvin Bryant their bus never arrived Tuesday morning. Students were still standing at the bus stop after 8 a.m., just minutes before the 8:15 a.m. scheduled school start time.

On Monday, parents of Inman Middle School students told Channel 2 Action News buses were late, and in some cases never showed up, to transport children from their Candler Park neighborhood.

Halle Griffee told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri she and her daughter, Morgan, waited 45 minutes in heavy rain, but the bus never came.

"Angry? No. Disappointed? Extremely. Frustrated? Maddeningly," Griffee said.

Griffee said they finally decided to drive. Ten other students were also waiting at the bus stop, which is 2.5 miles from the school.

"They were talking about walking and everybody just took as many kids as they could in the car," Griffee said.

Dr. Margaret Thompson said her daughter's bus arrived 20 minutes late and resulted in her being late for class.

"Many parents work, and we need to be able to trust our school system to pick up our children when they say they're going to," Thompson said.

The school year started Monday after a difficult redistricting process and parents pointed to a reminder from Superintendent Erroll Davis about the importance of being ready to learn on the first day of school.

Parents said the bus trouble continued in the afternoon when their kids arrived at 5:15 p.m., an hour and 15 minutes late.

"The school wouldn't answer, the transportation office wouldn't answer. Nobody could tell me," Thompson said.

Atlanta Public Schools spokesperson Keith Bromery said in a statement: "We are looking into all of these transportation reports on a case-by-case basis and will work to resolve them as quickly as possible."

WSBTV