Nearly every single state in America requires there to be a first aid kit in school buses, and back when I was a kid, I remember them being right there in front of the bus.
So what would you do if your child came home bleeding profusely from their head after getting hurt on the bus, and they told you the bus driver said there wasn’t a first aid kit on board?
Yesterday, this 30-year-old mom’s 8-year-old daughter got off her school bus, soaked in blood. She doesn’t meet her daughter at the bus stop since it’s right across the street from their apartment.
Instead, she unlocks the front door, and her daughter lets herself in. When she walked through the door yesterday, her daughter was sobbing hysterically and holding her head.
“I noticed blood on her shirt, her pants, and her jacket. When she turned around, I saw it was in her hair and actively still bleeding and covering the back of her neck,” she explained.
“I have had a head injury before, so I’m well aware how much the head bleeds. What I don’t understand is what the protocol is for situations like this on the bus.”
“She said she told the bus driver; they didn’t have any first aid things for her to use, and the incident happened near the turn-in to our apartment complex. There [are] 2-3 stops in this same apartment complex before you reach her stop.”
Her daughter was bleeding so badly that everyone had to have noticed. Her daughter’s friend, who was sitting beside her, informed the bus driver of what happened, but the bus driver responded that they did not have a first aid kid so she couldn’t do anything.
The bus driver stuck to the route and just dropped her daughter off when they got there. She realizes the bus driver couldn’t have left all the other kids alone on the bus to walk her daughter to their apartment.
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But anyway, after her daughter came home, she whisked her away to the pediatric ER. On the drive over there, she called the school to fill them in.
“They hadn’t heard about it yet from the bus driver is what I gathered. They were fairly surprised. About 8 minutes later, they started calling me while I’m still driving. Apparently, NOW they got the report from the bus driver,” she added.
“She luckily didn’t have a concussion; however, they had to use glue. They were going to use staples, but they decided glue would be a better option. From what I gathered, [she] and a friend were playing, and she fell and hit her head against some metal piece near the seats.”
She has asked the school to pull footage of the accident, as there are cameras on the bus. In the meantime, she’s upset that the bus driver didn’t do more to help her daughter out.
I’m pretty positive all school buses have a radio or a way to contact someone. And if not, plenty of kids have cell phones, so why did the bus driver not call the school at least and have them contact this mom to tell her about the accident?
Also, the bus driver could have told her daughter to go inside and then come back out to let her know there was an adult at home to help care for her injury and get her medical attention.
I do think the bus driver exercised poor judgment by not being more alarmed or concerned about a child bleeding from their head.
What do you think, could the bus driver have done things differently?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
