COMMON SENSE TRUMPED BY NO-EXCEPTION SCHOOL RULE

Mother claims disabled son was stuck on HISD bus for hours and she was not allowed to carry him off

By Jonathan Martinez

Click2Houston
September 20, 2018

HOUSTON - Heartbreaking video shows a hysterical mother begging to be allowed onto a school bus in order to be by her disabled son's side, only to be denied.

Maha Alghol, whose says her son was stuck on a bus for hours, explained, "I'm here, I'm here with you, he hears my voice from the bus but they close the doors. They were very bad."

Maha Alghol said her 10-year-old son Abdulmalik, who uses a wheelchair to get around, was riding the bus home from Memorial Elementary School on Wednesday afternoon.

When the bus got to his apartment complex almost two hours later, Alghol said, her nightmare began.

"I went down and figured out that the ramp for that bus is not working," Alghol said.

What happened next though, Alghol couldn't believe.

It was all captured by neighbors on cellphone.

"I was trying to tell them, 'OK, I can go inside the bus, carry my son.' They won't let me,'" Alghol said.

The mother said the bus driver and a supervisor who later showed wouldn't allow her on the bus to get her child, citing rules by the district.

"They just standing inside the bus looking at me screaming at them and they didn't do anything. Anything at all. It was very rude," Alghol said.

It was until almost an hour later that someone had called police and even firefighters who ultimately helped to get the her son off the bus.

But the images of her son, who depends on a feeding tube, whose trip home from school took nearly three and a half hours -- is far from gone from her memory.

"I love him so much. Just to see the picture, he was so ... you know I felt so sorry for him," Alghol said.

Her only hope is that there's never a repeat of the situation and that policies change.

"Oh my goodness. He's is so important to me. I love him. Of course I don't want this to happen to him again," Alghol said.

Alghol said she met with transportation officials with the district and they apologized to her.

HISD also released a statement about the matter:

"HISD’s Interim General Manager of Transportation personally met with the parent of the child to address any concerns and explain the protocols in place that keep students safe. Best practices and training protocols do not allow anyone other than students, HISD employees and trained personnel to enter a bus regardless of the circumstances for safety purposes. The incident is under investigation. The investigation will determine what additional safety measures can be taken in the future. We want to reiterate that the safety and security of all our students and staff is always our top priority."

EDITOR’S NOTE: When they refused to let her carry her son off the bus, she should have called the police.