Student, parent wondering why bus stop was moved blocks away
By WVUA23 News Reporter Nick Balenger
When 14-year-old Amari Jones Marshall stood at her bus stop for her first day of high school, she said the bus never came.
Amari’s father Darrell Marshall contacted Bryant High School and was informed that Amari’s bus stop had moved three blocks down a busy street. With Marshall unable to drive his daughter to school, the dangers of the road are a concern to him.
“For her to walk all the way up there with no sidewalks and walk in the middle of the road with traffic just coming, it’s dangerous. She’s not used to that. And I’m scared to let her walk from up there,” Marshall said.
The road has no sidewalks, no street lights and no sign that marks a bus stop. When WVUA 23 reached out to Tuscaloosa City Schools they sent the following statement:
“School bus stops may change depending on the school that the student is going to and the number of children in the neighborhood that will be riding that particular bus. Unfortunately, we can’t put stops at everyone’s home, because the school buses would never get to where they need to go. Our guidelines state that a bus stop will be no more than 3/10th of a mile from a high school student’s home, no more than 1/4th of a mile for a middle school student’s home, and no more than .15 of a mile for an elementary age student. In this particular case, the new bus stop is 10 houses down from her house and the TCS transportation department did not deem this to be a dangerous road.”
Marshall and his neighbor have contacted Tuscaloosa police in hopes to slow down drivers on the road, but nothing has changed as of yet.
-kn**-**
