Yesterday I waited outside for twenty minutes for my daughter’s bus to drop her off from school. While we were waiting my son and I refilled our water and drank it all down by the time my daughter came home. The bus pulled up and my daughter slowly got off the bus and slowly came to me. Her hair was sticky with sweat, her shirt where her backpack was sweaty, but her face was red and her skin was hot and dry. She was in the first stages of heat stroke. She was dismissed from school at 2:45 pm and was dropped off at my home at 3:40 pm. She spent approximately 40-50 minutes in a hot bus that the windows did not open, no a/c, and she had no water. The real temperature at the time was 97 degrees with a heat index of 110 -115. I rushed her in the house gave her water to drink, had her run her wrists under cold water, fed her watermelon . She cooled down quickly and she is fine. I need to praise the Lord for that!
Yester day I decided to write her principal an e-mail:
Dear Principal (his name),
My daughter (her name) was dropped off earlier today by bus (X). She was red in the face, her hair and shirt were wet with sweat and she was showing signs of fatigue. She had been in this oven for over 45 minutes and these are early signs of heat stroke. The temp outside was 97 degrees with a heat index over 110 degrees. The bus that dropped her off has no A/C and does NOT have proper ventilation (windows do not open) for these kinds of temperatures. I need to ask one common sense questions that should have been asked by the school board before hiring Durham Bus Services. Iroquois is a year round school, are you prepared to transport children safely in extreme heat?
My wife spoke to you or one of your staff this afternoon expressing her concern and she was dismissed when you or your staff said, "We told the driver to open the windows." She was unaware at the time that the windows DON'T OPEN on the bus my daughter was on. My wife will be dropping Makayla off for school tomorrow and plans to speak with you. I expect you to have a resolution at that time. Over the next month and a half their are sure to be more extreme temperatures to come. With all the headlines being made by bus companies and children dying in them because of heat related injuries I would expect a higher level of care.
Best regards,
Dennis Chance
My wife took my daughter to school today and spoke with the principal. The big solution is: 1. Kids can have water on the bus. My question is will the school supply water to kids that don’t have water? 2. Teachers will make sure all busses have windows that open. My question is if that was always their policy how did the bus my daughter was on slip through on the hottest day of the year? This is School district 62 answer to the problem. I am not satisfied. I was reminded that bus service is an optional, so my daughter will never ride the bus in this kind of heat again but I am still not satisfied.
The Principal is on our side but only with words and not with action. He forwarded my e-mail to the school superintendant and Durham Bus co. He is pushing to have the routes shortened but that’s as far as he would go and he doesn’t have that kind of pull anyway. When he was approached with possible solutions he towed the district line and said it’s not in the budget. One of the points I was trying to make is this; A year round school needs an emergency plan in place for days for extreme heat. They plan for snow, they plan for fire, and they plan for tornadoes. Did you know according to the CDC there are more weather related deaths due to extreme heat exposure than any other weather related cause of death? This is serious and I believe School District 62 needs to count the cost with that in mind. For an example Huntley Schools do not allow Children to be on a non ventilated bus in extreme heat for duration over twenty minutes. Can district 62 make a requirement for expanded bus service on dangerously hot days? I’m sure they could have if they counted the cost. Here is another possible solution; Iroquois school operates in July and August when most schools do not. Can Durham bus Company whose claim to fame is they are the second largest bus company in the United States be compensated for busses with a/c for July and August and they have those busses returned to barns in the southern states for the regular school year. Yes there would be an increased cost of transportation and use of fuel but there would be no need to purchase new equipment when current equipment sits dormant waiting for new school year.
I am no longer continuing this fight on my daughter’s behalf. I stated before she will not be taking the bus on hot days any longer. I am keeping this up because I learned through my wife’s conversation with the principal is the 40 min my daughter spent on the bus is not the current school record. There are children riding these ovens for up to an hour and a half (1.5 hours). Does a child have to die before School district 62 counts the cost? Is that what it’s going to take for a school employee, a teacher, or principal, or parent volunteer to say this is not safe and refuse to place children on hot busses? Is this what it is going to take to get a dispatcher or driver to refuse to load kids onto oven? I hope not. I pray district 62 counts the cost.
Help me make this letter go viral to all in district 62.
District 62 Telephone: 847-824-1136
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