Parents: Driver No Longer On Batavia Routes After Bus Incident, But More Questions Remain

The driver who mistakenly took a 3-year-old Batavia student on Friday up to St. Charles is not working in Batavia anymore.

That’s about all the student’s parents, Tom and Sarah Gorr, know for sure after multiple discussions with leaders and some limited contact with , .

The Gorrs’ when the female driver dropped off students at in Batavia. He attends the Early Childhood Center at the school, along with other children ages 3 to 5.

Instead the boy, who is speech delayed and says few words, remained on the bus for over an hour until the driver finally realized that he was still sitting in a seat. She made the discovery after she drove back to the bus company's , located at 220 N. Randall Road.

After the incident, the school district altered their procedures. Monitors that wait outside the bus for the children will now physically get onto the bus to make sure no one is left behind.

Sarah Gorr said the bus company usually has a second adult on the bus that unlatches the students from their harnesses. On Friday morning, the only adult on the bus was the driver.

Even though the district has kept in contact with the parents, they said the bus company has said little else about preventing future incidents.

“I just want to know it’s not going to happen again,” said Tom Gorr, the boy's father.

Batavia Patch on Tuesday afternoon tried to confirm the employment status of the Friday driver with the bus company's media representative, but no one returned an e-mail and phone call.

The e-mail to the company also contained questions about local clients in the west suburban Chicago area and safety meetings that the drivers possibly attend that went unanswered.

The Gorrs have not heard from the bus company since early Friday evening, the day the incident happened.

What The Parents Want

"Just tell—or show—me what really happened in the hour our son was missing, explain why or how an incident like this could happen and tell us what has been or is being done to prevent it from happening in the future," Tom Gorr said. "An apology would be a pleasant bonus."

The Gorrs would like a specific timeline of what happened from the moment the school bus pulled out of their driveway Friday morning to the time after 10 a.m. Friday where their son was driven to Alice Gustafson for the second time and finally taken off the bus.

The Gorrs know the bus company has footage that documents their son’s entire Friday morning bus ride.

Tom Gorr said he was told the video is the company’s property and is not made available to parents. 

“If there is nothing wrong, what would be the problem with seeing the video?” Tom Gorr said.

Gorr doesn’t really know what else happened to the female driver of the bus his son was riding on Friday. He learned from Batavia Superintendent Jack Barshinger that the bus company has taken disciplinary action, but details aren’t available on this because it’s a bus company personnel matter.

The Gorrs also did not hear much information about how the district was going to address this issue with the bus company. Barshinger inferred that discussions between the district and bus company have taken place, but again few details were revealed.

“What is the district doing to hold the bus company accountable?” Tom Gorr said. “What are they doing to hold their feet to the fire?”

How Is the Child Doing?

The 3-year-old at the center of this incident is doing OK after his extended stay in a harness on a bus Friday, his parents said.

“He honestly doesn’t know what happened,” Sarah Gorr said. “He just thinks it was a long bus ride.”

The Gorrs' son is a student at the Early Childhood Center located at Alice Gustafson School. The center serves children ages 3 to 5 with an identified developmental disability.

Tom said his son was a little thrown off because the one-hour-plus ride was not part of his routine. He also appeared curious to see his mother and a group of school staff waiting for him outside the school when the bus finally got back from the bus company's St. Charles facility.

The Gorrs decided that keeping their son's routine of going on the bus is probably the best thing for him at this time.

On Tuesday Sarah Gorr went to observe the district’s new procedure of monitors on the morning buses. She was pleased to find that an adult employee removed her son from his harness and that a school monitor got onto the bus to check for any missing students.

The Gorrs stressed that the Alice Gustafson staff have been very understanding about the situation. But they don’t have anything else that calms their concerns about the Illinois Central drivers.

“The district has assured us that the specific driver won’t be handling Batavia buses,” Tom Gorr said. “But who’s to say that a driver who messed up in another district won’t be transferred to Batavia?”