Video Of Crammed Pflugerville ISD School Buses Outrages Parents

PFLUGERVILLE, TEXAS — Parents expressed outrage this week after cell phone video emerged of Pflugerville ISD students being transported in a bus so crowded that some children had to sit on the floor, local news stations reported.

Crystle Oakley, the mother of a Pflugerville ISD student, showed KEYE video of students recently crammed inside a school district school bus. "“Pretty much everyone’s sitting three to a seat and four to five kids sit on the floor every day,” the student, Ashtin, told the news station.

Oakley added that children were seated in the aisle of the bus, including directly in front of the emergency exit in exacerbating the danger. “They’re piling all of the students at the school onto one bus and if there was an accident, all of the kids would’ve been piled on top of each other,” she told KEYE. “There wasn’t an easy access way to get out of the bus if there was an emergency”

The woman said the situation had been going on for nearly a week before she was prompted to notify administrators. In response, the district's transportation service provider, Durham School Services, explained the situation was caused due to an "unprecedented driver shortage."

The company notice that was obtained by KEYE added that drivers are often forced to combine routes or perform "shuttle-like runs" in light of the driver shortage. Yahoo picked up on the story, securing a statement from the company related to Pflugerville ISD school buses: “Every student on any one of our buses should have a designated seat. The manufacturer of the vehicle sets the capacity of the bus. If one is not available or provided, a passenger will not be able to ride on that given route. The safety of our students has been and will continue to remain our number one priority. If a driver deviates from this policy and protocol, he or she will be immediately disciplined per our progressive discipline policy.”

School district administrators told KEYE that they are meeting with Durham School Services to ensure necessary changes have been made. Nevertheless, parents reportedly have urged their children to call 911 if they find themselves on an overcrowded bus and feel unsafe.

By its own admission the Pflugerville ISD may inadvertently may be breaking the law in transporting students in such overcrowded conditions, judging from its own stated policy guidelines. "By law (issued from the Department of Public Safety), students are required to have assigned seats and student seating charts must be submitted by the drivers to record student attendance," the district's policy states in part.

The job posting site glassdoor recently posted a help wanted notice for a Pflugerville ISD bus driver, noting the job pays between $11 to $17 an hour.