The autistic 7-year-old endured a four and a half hour bus ride from his home near Van Cortlandt Park to his school in Hunts Point on Monday. In that amount of time he could have gone from the Bronx to Washington D.C.
"He was only there from 11:30 to 2. That was his day. And that's not acceptable," his mother, Marisol Arroyo said.
Throughout kindergarten and first grade little John rode a mini-bus to school, along with about twelve other special needs children. But Monday morning, for reasons never explained to his parents, a regular-size school bus picked up john first and then about three dozen more kids.
"The bus driver was new, so he didn't know the route. That's what was told to me by the Department of Education," his father, John Arroyo, said.
"You can't change his routine at all. He will get upset. He'll panic. He'll start crying. He'll just have a complete meltdown," Marisol said.
We asked the Department of Education for an explanation. A spokesperson told us the department is correcting the problem by shortening the bus route, adding there were transportation kinks to work out at the start of the summer school semester.
NEW YORK AND TRI-STATE AREA NEWS
USEFUL LINKS:
