YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. – The Ypsilanti Township school district has shuffled its bus stop locations, leaving some people in high-traffic areas with lower visibility.
New bus routes at Lincoln Consolidated Schools have parents concerned for their children’s safety.
Superintendent Robert Jansen said they reworked the bus routes due to driver staffing shortages.
Parents say many of those changes include moving the bus stop locations from inside neighborhoods to the main roads.
“It’s something that looks good on paper where they can have a few bus drivers and do the bus routes real quick and get through it without taking into account the safety of the children,” said parent Amanda Allen.
Allen and many of her neighbors have expressed concern to the district about the bus stop at Textile Road and Cherrywood Drive.
“It’s really busy here in the morning after school at this corner, and there was a car accident at this very intersection over the summer, and somebody died, so that’s concerning,” Allen said.
A parent in a different neighborhood sent a video showing kids waiting in the dark at a bus stop along Bunton Road.
The video shows how difficult it is for drivers to see students waiting at the bus stop for the morning pickup.
“You can see that you can’t see,” said Amanda Pierson about the video.
Pierson said their bus stop location was recently moved to a busier road. Some parents, like Emily Grish, have pulled their kids from the bus stop out of concern for their safety.
“No, go,” said Grish. “I’m not letting her go down there. I’m not letting her right here.”
While parents say the superintendent’s office has been responsive, they say their calls and emails to the transportation director have gone unanswered.
“This is uncalled for, unsafe, unnecessary, and the district needs to give us answers about why they think this is OK,” said parent Melissa Palmquist.
Jansen said he would personally visit the bus stops of concern to observe the situation and work with parents to devise a solution.