Minor School Bus Accident Prompts Questions About Notification
EL PASO, TX. – A minor school bus crash in East El PasoFriday morning leaves some questions about protocol when it comes to notifying parents.
Imaginea child rides the bus andthe bus isinvolved in a collision with another vehicle on the way to school. Butthe parents arenot told about it for nearly two hours. That’s exactly what happened to East El Pasoan Patricia VertacnikFriday morning.
Her 13-year-old son Jacob attends Eastwood Middle School in the Ysleta Independent School District. And his bus was rear-ended by a Chevy Blazer just before 8:30Friday morning at the intersection of Yarbrough and Trawood.
But Vertacnik said she never knew about the accident until she received a call from the school nurse more than an hour and a half after the crash occurred. She said her son went to the nurse’s office complaining of back pain and that’s when she was called.
Jacob toldABC-7 that the impact shifted the bus, and the other 17 children on board, back and forth, causing him to hit his side on the seat. And now his mother wants to know why she was not contacted immediately after the crash, instead of the school waiting for her son to complain about pain.
“The point is, my son is under their care when he leaves my home and he’s on that bus. If anything happens to him,I should be notified right away. It’s not the nurse’s or my son’s job to do that,” saidVertacnik.
ABC-7 spoke with Ysleta school officialsabout this situation and they told us all parents of children on that bus were eventually notified of the crash.
