PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland Public Schools family found itself in a scary situation recently, when the bus carrying two Lincoln High School students dropped the students off at the wrong stop — 7 miles away from their home.
The students, Ruby and Lucy Day, both have special needs and take a specialized bus to their Pearl District home every day. But in mid-March their mother, Emily Day, said a substitute bus driver dropped the sisters off across town at Northeast 92nd Avenue and Glisan Street.
"I waited around for a while thinking they went to an after-school event," Emily Day said. "They got on what they thought was still their regular route. And it took them all the way to 92nd and Glisan."
The two don’t have cell phones. They walked 10 blocks to a Burgerville on 82nd Avenue and asked staff for directions to a TriMet bus. Emily Day said her daughters then took a bus to a MAX train, before catching a streetcar home.
The two live less than a mile from Lincoln High School. They got home an hour and a half later than usual.
"It makes me feel very scared,” Emily Day said. “It makes me worry that something could have happened to them."
Day then contacted Portland Public Schools. She said they were initially unsure what went wrong. More than a week after the incident, Day said she learned her daughters' bus route had changed — though neither she nor her daughters were notified of the change.
"I think that they need to be communicating bus routes more effectively," Emily Day said of Portland Public Schools.
Emily Day also said she learned there was a substitute driver that day. District officials told Day that the driver was assigned to take one boy to 92nd and Glisan.
"That was astounding.” she said. “I mean two blonde girls boarding the bus when one boys supposed to be on that bus."
The driver only checked with dispatch to see if the right students were on board after dropping Ruby and Lucy Day off, their mother said.
Portland Public Schools told KGW that the substitute bus driver is a contractor and not a district employee. In a statement, a spokesperson said the school district deeply regrets what happened, though they added that this mistake does not reflect the fine work their transportation team does on a daily basis, transporting thousands of kids to and from school.