BOSTON — Near the beginning of the school year, a Dorchester mother Laquanda Willis said she began to worry about how safe her four-year-old daughter was on the school bus.
Willis told 25 Investigates that school officials failed to address her complaint about an older boy’s interactions with her daughter in September.
“They said they were going to investigate it,” she said. “I never heard anything back from that situation.”
By Halloween, Willis says her daughter had told a school official that the boy inappropriately touched her while the two children sat right behind the driver.
Willis says the alleged sexual assault left her wondering: Why isn’t Boston Public Schools doing more to protect and monitor kids on the school bus?
“For all the other parents out there who have little kids that are riding BPS transportation with no bus monitor, with no bus aide, with no type of structure, it’s really concerning because if this can happen to my child and she’s only been in school for two months, three, two months, that’s scary,” Willis said.
In recent years, BPS has focused on route consolidation in hopes of better-serving students and parents.
But Willis said she’s worried there’s not enough supervision – particularly when the age range of passengers is wide, and younger kids sit alongside older kids.
She said: “There is no bus monitor. No bus aide. It is just the bus driver. And like 30 kids and the age group is huge.”
Willis is the second parent to reach out to Boston 25 this year with a concern about their child’s safety on the bus.
In October, a Dorchester mother with a child at Holmes Innovation School told Boston 25 that an older student undressed her four-year-old daughter on the bus and was cleaning her after she had an accident.
“This is really big,” she said. “This can’t be swept under the rug. A four-year-old undressed.”
That mother also called for more supervision: “There should be someone on the bus watching.”
When Willis reached out to 25 Investigates weeks ago, our team began asking Boston Public Schools about how it provides safety plans to students in cases of alleged sexual assault, including unwanted sexual touching. We also asked about its policies for providing bus monitors in those cases, and whether BPS has enough bus monitors.
BPS spokesperson Max Baker offered to make a school official available for an interview.
But Baker then withdrew that offer, and for three weeks has not provided responses to 25 Investigates’ questions about supervision of children on bus routes.
UNMET NEED FOR BUS MONITORS
Boston Public Schools started the school year with 675 hired bus monitors and plans to hire about 50 more, according to an Aug. 30 Boston School Committee meeting.
Altogether, that would put Boston on track to have almost 200 more bus monitors than in the last school year.
But that increase may not be enough to meet the growing need for bus monitors, according to 25 Investigates’ analysis of figures provided at a November 2022 school committee meeting.
The number of students with individualized education plans who require bus monitors has been growing annually in Boston.
In 2020, BPS hoped to hire enough additional bus monitors to assign one to each bus.
BPS had 511 bus monitors as of November 2022.
That’s according to Delavern Stanislaus, BPS Chief of Capital Planning, who spoke at the school committee meeting.
But 481 students needed one-on-one monitors, and 1,664 students required a general monitor – according to Stanislaus.
So, even with roughly 725 bus monitors this school year, Boston is still hundreds of bus monitors short.
Earlier this year, the state Department of Secondary and Elementary Education found Boston Public Schools violated students’ rights to special education services – in part by failing to provide trained bus monitors to several students with disabilities.
The lack of bus monitors creates a challenge for the district when parents like Willis want a bus monitor for their child for other reasons: like concern over unwanted sexual touching.
BPS didn’t provide 25 Investigates with the most recent data on how many bus monitors are on the job, and how many are needed.
At the start of the school year, Boston Public Schools superintendent Mary Skipper said the district was “fully staffed” with bus drivers.
Dr. Brandy Brooks, executive director of Boston nonprofit Higher Ground, said she’s noticed that Skipper’s administration has emphasized addressing transportation issues that can disproportionately affect communities her group works with including unhoused families.
“I feel they’ve really put a point of emphasis on this – on-time arrivals, on-time departures and really supporting students,” Brooks said. “I feel they’re making a concerted effort, and yet and still there may need to be additional conversation.”
REQUEST FOR SAFETY PLAN
Willis said she wants a safety transfer to another school, and a safety plan that ensures her daughter will have a monitor on her new bus.
Willis said she has yet to receive a safety plan.
“Someone is responsible,” Willis said. “It seems like the situation just escalated and the person that fell victim was my child.”
And Willis said a school official only offered her a safety transfer after 25 Investigates began asking questions.
Willis said BPS offered to transfer her child to another school – but she said she’s worried about supervision on those buses as well.
In a statement, a spokesperson for BPS said it doesn’t comment on equity investigations.
Instead, the spokesperson shared the superintendent’s policy on sexual misconduct towards students.
It says in part: “Interim measures for the safety of the students involved must be taken upon receipt of the report to ensure equal access to educational programs and activities.”
25 Investigates reviewed BPS policies and found that safety transfers are allowed for “students who are victims of a serious physical, emotional, and/or electronically transmitted assault, or who are victims of a violent criminal offense while on school property, on school buses, or at school-sponsored activities.”
EXCITED TO GET ON THE BUS
Willis said her 4-year-old daughter couldn’t wait for the days for when she’d get to ride the school bus to P.A. Shaw Elementary School.
“She kept seeing them drive by when she was in day care,” Willis said. “She was like: ‘I want to get on the bus. I want to get on the bus.’”
Now Willis says she’s fighting for a copy of the school’s incident report for the Halloween incident, to learn more about what happened to the little girl.
“Honestly, this is my worst fear,” she said.
25 Investigates found the Halloween incident was referred to the Suffolk County District Attorney.
The DA’s spokesperson Jim Borghesani said in an email: “This incident has been referred to our office. Because of the age of the boy involved we have submitted it to our Children’s Advocacy Center for follow-up.”
The not-for-profit Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County helps to coordinate responses to alleged child abuse.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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