Some Pekin Parents Angry Over New School Bus Policy
By: Alexandra Sutter WMBD/WYZZ
Updated: September 26, 2012
PEKIN -- Some parents in Pekin are angry over a new school bus policy.
More than a dozen kids wait for the bus on this corner every morning, but they didn't used to.
Before, the bus drove into the neighborhood to pick them up, but this change is leaving parents with major concerns.
Father Jon Peel said, "What it is, is this particular road does not have any sidewalks and it has what's called a blind drive."
For the past ten years, the school bus picked up kids and then turned around in the cul de sac. Now the city and school district is saying this type of turn-around is dangerous, and it will avoid it as much as possible.
Peel said, "There is a bus that goes by in the morning for pre-school that does have to back up, so there is already a bus that backs up to our neigborhood. So why is that not dangerous, but it is for our children?"
Parents are angry, and feeling that their kids safety is being compromised now more than ever.
Father Rick Lukehart has two young girls. He no longer feels comfortable sending them to the bus stop. He said, "Now they're required to walk approximately four or five blocks from here, clear down out of sight, in between sex offenders, completely no sidewalks all the way down. So there's no safety whatsoever."
What parents are suggesting is the bus come down over the hill and pick up their kids where they can wait on a sidewalk.
Parents said they're not asking for the bus to come right to their front doors, they're just asking for a safer, closer spot.
Father Paul Belcher said, "Just meet us half way. Meet us down by the closest corner and then let them continue to make the turnaround wherever they can."
The city of Pekin operates the bus system for the school districts, who have the final approval of routes and stops.
District 108 said it has no plans to change this bus stop.
Both the city and district declined to talk to us on camera.
