Parent claims children were stranded when school bus did not come
By Kyndall Jones
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HINDS COUNTY, Mississippi (WAPT) — A parent of students within the Jackson Public School District is voicing her frustrations after she claims her children and several other students were left stranded at a bus stop in a South Jackson neighborhood.
Jolie Hatfield said her two sons, Adam and Romeo, attend Oak Forest Elementary School. Hatfield said this is her sons’ first year at the school since the district’s optimization plan went into effect. Hatfield said her sons previously attended Marshall Elementary School, but the school closed under the plan.
Hatfield said when her children attended Marshall Elementary, they would walk to school because they had no other way of transportation, but because of the change in schools, the students are now dependent on the bus for transportation.
“I didn’t even want my kids to come here because it’s so far away in a dangerous neighborhood, ” Hatfield said.
Hatfield said the district told her the bus would arrive at 6:30 a.m. She claims the bus never came.
“I called the school, and somebody picked up, and I said, ‘The bus hasn’t shown up, do you know what is going on?'” said Hatfield. “She was like, ‘Oh well, we’ll trying to see if they’re going to send a bus to pick up the kids.'”
According to the Jackson Public School District’s executive director of public engagement, Hatfield registered her two sons late.
Sherwin Johnson, a spokesperson for JPS, said Hatfield registered her sons on Monday, Aug. 5. Johnson said the deadline to register for guaranteed school bus transportation was Wednesday, July 31. Johnson said registration opened on May 1.
Johnson said although Hatfield missed the deadline, the district’s transportation team was still able to transport her children home during the first two days of school and have reached out to her directly to address her concerns and ensure her children’s transportation needs are met.
Johnson said the district will continue their efforts to transport over 8,000 students daily with excellence.
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