A parent in the Cowichan Valley school district has taken issue with a simulated bus crash event that she claims left some students with minor injuries, including her son.
Angela Ferguson said that on Feb. 16, students were taken from their school grounds without the consent of their parents and placed on a school bus as part of the simulated crash event.
She said the bus driver slammed on the brakes at one point without informing the students that he was about to do so, which left some with slight injuries, including her son who had a sore neck from the incident.
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“They literally put these kids in a simulated crash event in the most unsafe way possible and I don’t care if they went from 30 km/h to 15, they didn’t warn the kids to take a safe seat because they were about to do the simulated crash event,” Ferguson said.
“Parents should be aware of what happened here.”
In a letter to Ferguson in response to her concerns, Darcy Hoff, the district’s director of inclusive learning, said the goal of the district is to ensure that the issues she raised do not occur again.
He said the school district’s transportation manager has reviewed district and provincial policies and procedures regarding bus safety programs, and the district has immediately ceased the practice of applying a slight brake application from 30km/h to 15km/h.
“This is no longer part of the bus safety program,” Hoff said.
“The district is creating a bus safety training video using a lead-trainer.”
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As for the students being taken from their school grounds without their parents’ consent, Hoff said discussions have been held with the school principal on the issue, and further discussions will be held with all district principals and vice principals to review procedures around students being taken out of schools.
A further statement from the district said it has received no reports of any injuries from the incident, even after the school principal had individually checked in with the classes involved.
“As for communication, our principal and other district staff are continuing to personally reach out to families,” the statement said.