Why a 1st grader was stuck on a school bus for an hour

School busses operate on a very tight schedule. It picks students up and drops them off at about the same time everyday. That's not the case for one 1st grader, though.

“You know, six-year-old being stuck on a bus. He was released at 3:15 but coming home at 5:15. That's unacceptable,” Antonio Speed, the father of Terrel who was stuck on a school bus.

Terrel Speed, goes to School 82 in Buffalo. For the past few days the bus has been dropping him off an hour later than it’s suppose to. His dad is not happy.

“We are stuck being late because the busses are being late," Speed said.

A large part of this issue is that there just aren't enough bus drivers. That’s why First Student, a student transport group, is trying to hire more drivers.

“We are actively training over 100 candidates,” Dawn Tighe, the Western New York Training Manager, said.

First Student acknowledges the driver shortage which is why it’s at career fair in Buffalo. However, it also says Terrel, and students like him, might be arriving late for other reasons.

“Weather. There’s traffic. There’s other students not being ready at the bus stop. Our schools don’t always get out of school on time,” Tighe said.

But Terrel’s dad thinks it is the lack of drivers. He says that the current ones are forced to take on more students, which means more drop offs, so the children are inevitably late.

“Hire drivers. We need drivers,” Speed said.

First student says the shortage is because of a high turnover rate. It’s trying to hire more but says that candidates have to pass a background check and multiple other qualifications before they can be hired.

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