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Hello, I am writing to you to hopefully get some help. I am advocating for Mary
Freeman, who is from
Middletown Ct and has an 8 year old son, Vernon Freeman who attends Spencer
School.She lives on Rose
Circle. Her son has taken the school bus for 2 years at the same bus stop, which
is "Rose Circle Mailboxes". That is the description that the Board of Ed had
assigned the stop to be. She has several varying types of medical issues and
is unable to wait outside with him, especially in the winter. This bus stop was
a blessing because she could right out of her window and watch Vernon get on the
bus and feel at ease, knowing her son safely got on the bus and is off to
school.
However towards the end of September , 2011 , Vernon was waiting at the
designated bus stop and
the school bus flew right past him. Mary could see Vernon look back at the
window where he knew his mom was watching and she could see the scared look on
his face, wondering why his bus went past him. Vernon ran along side of the bus
until it came to a stop and got on. Mary was very upset because it's not like
she could have just ran outside to help him to decide what to do. She called the
school to find out why the bus route seemed to have changed and they said they
have no knowledge of this and are not informed of actual bus stops, just the
buses coming in themselves.They told her to call the BOE.
She called the BOE and they in turn told her to contact the Dept. of
Transportation. Mike, the Administrator, and she called and he told her that he
too had no knowledge of the bus route change.He sent her a copy , that she
requested, of the bus route and he did . It clearly showed the bus stop for
Vernon is "Rose Circle Mailboxes" She informed them that when she waited
outside one morning with her brother, Eddie Freeman, the bus driver told her
that "It's my bus and I can do whatever I want" There was a bus monitor that
heard this as well. Her main concern seemed to be that they were running late
from having to stop and talk with them because her response to the bus driver
was "Let's go, we have stops to make".
After she spoke with Mike, the Administrator at the Transportation Dept., she
seemed to get no resolution. So she had her daughter in law bring her down there
to talk face to face and his attitude was not one of any concern. She mentioned
to him her concern and safety of her son, and reminded him that the route sheet
he sent her said Rose Circle mailboxes, and when he came from out of his office,
he handed her the route which did not have Rose circle Mailboxes on it.
She told him the sheet he sent her had it on it and he said "well, this one does
not & this is correct". She had a hand written letter asking why the route
was changed and why she was not informed in writing and that she is formally
requesting to have it changed back to what it had been for the last 16 years.
This is the basis of her complaint. She asked him to sign it to show that she
had made a formal complaint and he would not. he said go talk to Datco.
Mary then went to Datco and showed her letter to a receptionist and she went
running into her Manager's office, Bonnie, and said "Bonnie, you better get out
here, we're being sued!". Mary did not nor did her letter say anything like
that. Bonnie listened and then told her, in her words, "your kids are lucky and
should be thankful we even send our buses in there, they should be walking if it
was up to me". That was the end of that conversation.
She then went to the BOE and spoke directly the secretary and asked her to
sign her letter to show acknowledgment of her complaint and she was not signing anything. She spoke with Mike Frechette at a later date and asked to tell her
story and he listened and told her he would take care of it. Well one week later
and nothing has been resolved, no phone call or any type of follow up.
_UPDATE:
Mike Frechette called Mary this Am 10/18/11 around 7:50 and told her everything
is taken care of, the bus route is where it should be. She sent Vernon to catch
the bus at the mailboxes and the bus went right past him and she has a photo she
took with her phone clearly showing him and another child running after the bus.
As you can understand, she is still upset and has had no apology as to why she
did not receive a letter of the change, and further more, she basically got the
run around and does not feel like a respected parent of a Middletown Public
School student. It's difficult enough for her to get around as she depends on
family to help her as she suffers from severe diabetes which has ruined her
eyesight, has difficulty hearing which makes it difficult to hear conversations
amongst a group of people, had triple bypass surgery which limits her walking
distances and also has had previous back surgery.
If you could please call her-860-343-3261 or 860-759-5718 or myself. My name
is Suzanne Giordano 860-301-6321 or email me , Thank you and I greatly
appreciate you taking the time to listen. freefree101@att.net.
