No lighting, unpaved, wild animals, and speeding cars on a sharp turn.
According to parents in a rural community near Rawdon, N.S., those conditions make a new bus stop location unsuitable and dangerous.
“It’s the most dangerous turn on our road. It’s almost a 90-degree turn. In the wintertime, we’ve seen multiple cars go off this road,” said parent Mieke Eisenhauer.
“There’s no lighting on this road. There’s no sidewalks. It’s a dirt road and people fly (through), and there’s wild animals.”
The bus stop they’ve used for many years has been removed and placed several kilometres away — on a sharp corner of a secluded dirt road.
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The parents say they were caught off guard by the route change and received little notice.
Neighbours in the area are apparently also expressing their discontent. On Thursday, a sign that read ‘Do not use property/road as a bus stop!’ was put up near the stop on the first day of school.
To further complicate matters, some parents say they were told their past bus stop was removed and they no longer qualified for transportation because they were out of the catchment area.
Parent Dorothy Lynch says she was told she would have to apply for a transfer.
“I have a son in Grade 11, who has attended from primary right through. He went to Rawdon District and then moved on to Hants North. Always has had a bus. We’ve never been requested to transfer,” she said.
“Everyone was misplaced (on the first day of school). The bus didn’t even come to the stop it was supposed to be sent to. I spent all morning getting children to school.”
The Chignecto Central Regional Centre for Education did not provide someone to speak to Global News for an interview, but said someone will be reaching out to families to find a solution.
“Even if they give it back this year, are they going to take it away next year? I need this bus stop to get my children to school,” said Eisenhauer.
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