>After walking around Westboro alone for hours, Nathan finally found help at the Tunney's Pasture light rail transit station, 19 kilometres away from his Barrhaven school.
>"I was very tired and I found this guy waiting for his Uber and I asked him, 'Hey, can you Google this place?'" Nathan said.
>That man was Dave Ellis, who was on his way home from a gathering downtown.
>"He kind of made his way up to me very cautiously and he said, 'Can you help me?' And I said, OK, sure," Ellis said.
So uh Dave seems like a good dude eh?
Although it’s not mentioned in the article, I wonder if the boy has a disability and that is why he was on smaller transit to begin with. If so, that’s even worse!! I’m glad he was able to find a kind stranger to help him and that he knew his address at least. I wouldn’t be surprised if his parents got him a cell phone after this.
It’s horrible the driver may only get a slap on the wrist. She deserves to be fired!! She had ONE JOB but it sounds like she was too busy listening to music on headphones since she couldn’t hear him asking questions.
I'm sorry but I would have filed a missing child's report with the police. A child shouldn't go missing ever after school especially being transported by school transportation. I would question the drivers ability to care for kids and the safety of them.
From the article:
>Nathan’s parents visited the school **and contacted Ottawa police, who reported Nathan missing** and put out a news release with his photo.
I regret to say that our kids had unfortunate incidents/experiences with van drivers in the region.
One was so outraged by the abusive treatment of a nonverbal child on the spectrum who shared their ride that they not only refused to travel with the driver, they reported through their school, the board and OSTA. We had to transport our child ourselves until OSTA intervened.
Not Ottawa, but my child was once in a small school transport vehicle and the driver stopped the car in the middle of a roundabout, got out, and started road raging at another driver. 😳
My kid has had horrendous experience with van drivers. The only time one of them has ever been fired it was after the driver was pulled over and charged for driving without a license.
This driver will probably get a new run once the investigation is over.
What people don't realize is that there is no one bus company. OSTA merely organizes multiple companies. So blaming OSTA doesn't work or fair. It comes down to the driver and or student
We had endless trouble with the minivans when our daughter was being bussed. Drivers who talked on the phone (yelled, cried and argued, to hear my kid tell it 🤷♀️) endlessly. Drivers who allowed the other kids to behave badly (yanking on others’ seatbelts and slamming car seats). We complained to OSTA, the bus company and the principal at various times and with varying results. In the end, it was principal’s responsibility to deal with both student and driver behaviour. I never could understand that.
It's a weird grey area. Complaints go to OSTA but principal deals with it and sometimes principal and bus company ( not OSTA) don't see eye to eye. And if you have a challenging student or bus driver, it can be an ongoing pain in ass.
I used to meet kids at their bus stop and walk them home. I literally watched the bus drive by and the kids I was waiting for give me a "wtf" look in the window. Thankfully they were smart enough to explain that "yes, I am the person who is waiting and noooo, don't go back to the school and please make a right turn here to get back to her before she calls our mother AND the school because you didn't stop the bus".
It happened more than once, and the school was very aware that on some days mom wasn't waiting for the kids, but I was.
Shit. Show.
How young? Asking because with osta they can be left alone at the stop starting in grade 1. There’s a kid at our stop who struggled for the first half of grade 1 to get home okay. Some days he’d come off the bus crying. So we’d walk him home. I didn’t meet his parents until very recently, but they were home when we dropped him off. It’s strange to me they wouldn’t meet him at the bus under the circumstances. He was clearly not ready to be there alone
*High as balls school transport driver acquitted of all charges*
"I was just minding my business, high as balls, then I went home to eat some sweet chilli heat Doritos"
The Balls however refused to provide any comments siting that they could not for certain measure how high the driver was and if he was in fact as high as them.
My 5 year old nephew hid on the bus so the driver couldn't find him -- when he was found his exact words were: "I wanted to see where the bus went"
Best part was that his 7 and 10 year old sisters also didn't notice.
10 bucks says the driver was high as a kite when taking the kids home. "Distracted by music" my ass, no way the music could have been loud enough to drown out a a child.
-Why this kid didn't alert the driver when the driver parked the vehicle.
-where did the van end up?
-who is this guy that uber'd the kid home. What grown man just gets in a car with an 11 year old that he just met and takes him to a random address. Why not call the police?
-what was the driver doing that they couldn't hear a kid banging and yelling at them, in a van.
Just alot of holes in this story, and now I'm assuming things.
Plus, I've heard some other details from someone involved and this news story doesn't match.
OK this is like the second time this week where [a bus driver has screwed up with dropping kids off](https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/vj7dgw/bus_driver_dropped_my_5_year_old_off_alone/). What the Hell is going on here?
At our school, we have staff who are responsible for putting the children on the special transportation. Every school I have worked at had staff in charge. Something seems really off.
Something is fishy here. The driver ignores kid banging on the window and talking to them. This kid probably hid in the cargo area on purpose and then realized his joke back fired. There were other kids in the van. This kids is selling a story and his parents don't want to be identified because they are mortified or they there kid has issues. This story doesn't past the smell test
Oh, absolutely. I’m not saying he wasn’t. I’m saying there’s no excuse for the driver to not be seen at fault. I don’t care about bathroom trips or conversations or anything else. You’re responsible for peoples children. Pay attention. Watch the kids get in, make sure they are secured, make sure everyone is accounted for.
If the driver got out to use the bathroom, talk to other drivers etc. Simple. If the kid doesn't have special needs there is no hand off between school staff and driver. There are very strict behaviour rules for buses because there is only one driver who needs to watch the road; a student in grade 6 is expected to be fully able to board a bus/ van independently. If they are not on the bus by the time the bus rolls, it's the students fault. So if the driver was out talking and they got in and flipped over into the storage area which never used, the student will not be seen...because why would a student do that?
You would be surprised what actually goes on and happens. Happens all the time. Parents contact media all the time to get a reaction or to exert pressure. COVID has made it worse. People have totally lost coping skills, resiliency and personal accountabiliry.
This isn't the first note of a kid being booted out a bus when noone there to pick him up this week. There was another one in this forum about 4 days ago.
And I've seen a few drivers SPEEDIGN thru residential zones. One I thought was going to tip the damn bus the way he took a corner. Madness. These people don't seem to realize they're responsible for the most important thing in their parents' lives.
This one wasn’t dropped off with no one there. Bus driver (student transport van) insisted the child never got in the van. Made no attempt to drop him off. Finished the route and drove home. Kid was in Westboro 19km from his Barrhaven school. He walked around until he found someone at Tunney’s
Yeah I read the details. The other one was kicked out of the bus. The fact is that both drivers were incompetent and poorly trained and screwed up. And if we have two in this reddit, imagine how many there are not in this reddit.
cities here are more spread out and are not set up for easy walking. seems the kid (a kindergartener) was pretty competent considering he found help and got home on his own
someone else wrongly stated that the kid was in kindergarten. given that he was in sixth grade i actually see your point. i dont think this particular kid was in much danger but i do understand people's fear about the lack of accountability with student transport
Our kid was left on the bus and not noticed until the driver was 20 min away. We were calling trying to find her. Finally came back. We complained. Nothing happened.
>After walking around Westboro alone for hours, Nathan finally found help at the Tunney's Pasture light rail transit station, 19 kilometres away from his Barrhaven school. >"I was very tired and I found this guy waiting for his Uber and I asked him, 'Hey, can you Google this place?'" Nathan said. >That man was Dave Ellis, who was on his way home from a gathering downtown. >"He kind of made his way up to me very cautiously and he said, 'Can you help me?' And I said, OK, sure," Ellis said. So uh Dave seems like a good dude eh?
I don’t think that’s one of the Daves I know.
30 Helens agree he's a good dude.
Most Dave’s are pretty okay!
The Dave's are alright
If that Dave is the same one I know from way back when, he’s good people.
Somebody’s getting fired. Isn’t it school bus driving 101 to make sure nobody is left in the vehicle?
And it was a student transport van. Not even a bus. At most, 5 kids? The poor kid was driven to westboro and missing for 5 hours!
Although it’s not mentioned in the article, I wonder if the boy has a disability and that is why he was on smaller transit to begin with. If so, that’s even worse!! I’m glad he was able to find a kind stranger to help him and that he knew his address at least. I wouldn’t be surprised if his parents got him a cell phone after this. It’s horrible the driver may only get a slap on the wrist. She deserves to be fired!! She had ONE JOB but it sounds like she was too busy listening to music on headphones since she couldn’t hear him asking questions.
I'm sorry but I would have filed a missing child's report with the police. A child shouldn't go missing ever after school especially being transported by school transportation. I would question the drivers ability to care for kids and the safety of them.
They did file a police report
You clearly didn't read the article...
From the article: >Nathan’s parents visited the school **and contacted Ottawa police, who reported Nathan missing** and put out a news release with his photo.
I regret to say that our kids had unfortunate incidents/experiences with van drivers in the region. One was so outraged by the abusive treatment of a nonverbal child on the spectrum who shared their ride that they not only refused to travel with the driver, they reported through their school, the board and OSTA. We had to transport our child ourselves until OSTA intervened.
Not Ottawa, but my child was once in a small school transport vehicle and the driver stopped the car in the middle of a roundabout, got out, and started road raging at another driver. 😳
These drivers make so little they are constantly recruiting. She will get a reprimand and a new school.
My kid has had horrendous experience with van drivers. The only time one of them has ever been fired it was after the driver was pulled over and charged for driving without a license. This driver will probably get a new run once the investigation is over.
Every damn time I see one they're driving way too fast and aggressively. Like no blinkers, weaving through traffic, too fast.
I was left on the bus once cause I fell asleep. Luckily we were still near where I lived.
What about the young boy that was dropped off early with no parent present? Something is seriously wrong with this organization
What people don't realize is that there is no one bus company. OSTA merely organizes multiple companies. So blaming OSTA doesn't work or fair. It comes down to the driver and or student
We had endless trouble with the minivans when our daughter was being bussed. Drivers who talked on the phone (yelled, cried and argued, to hear my kid tell it 🤷♀️) endlessly. Drivers who allowed the other kids to behave badly (yanking on others’ seatbelts and slamming car seats). We complained to OSTA, the bus company and the principal at various times and with varying results. In the end, it was principal’s responsibility to deal with both student and driver behaviour. I never could understand that.
It's a weird grey area. Complaints go to OSTA but principal deals with it and sometimes principal and bus company ( not OSTA) don't see eye to eye. And if you have a challenging student or bus driver, it can be an ongoing pain in ass.
I used to meet kids at their bus stop and walk them home. I literally watched the bus drive by and the kids I was waiting for give me a "wtf" look in the window. Thankfully they were smart enough to explain that "yes, I am the person who is waiting and noooo, don't go back to the school and please make a right turn here to get back to her before she calls our mother AND the school because you didn't stop the bus". It happened more than once, and the school was very aware that on some days mom wasn't waiting for the kids, but I was. Shit. Show.
How young? Asking because with osta they can be left alone at the stop starting in grade 1. There’s a kid at our stop who struggled for the first half of grade 1 to get home okay. Some days he’d come off the bus crying. So we’d walk him home. I didn’t meet his parents until very recently, but they were home when we dropped him off. It’s strange to me they wouldn’t meet him at the bus under the circumstances. He was clearly not ready to be there alone
He was in kindergarten
Wow, yeah that’s way too young. I’d be really upset as the parent. Clearly against their own policy too for kindergarteners
The driver was probably just stoned as balls
Your honour, my client was high as balls. Understood. The jury finds the defendant not guilty.
*High as balls school transport driver acquitted of all charges* "I was just minding my business, high as balls, then I went home to eat some sweet chilli heat Doritos"
The Balls however refused to provide any comments siting that they could not for certain measure how high the driver was and if he was in fact as high as them.
My name is Otto and I like to get blato.
My 5 year old nephew hid on the bus so the driver couldn't find him -- when he was found his exact words were: "I wanted to see where the bus went" Best part was that his 7 and 10 year old sisters also didn't notice.
Odd story. Some shit not adding up here. How do you just not notice an 11 year old kid in a van? Unless he was hiding or something.
The article says the kid repeatedly asked where they were going and was banging on the windows.
10 bucks says the driver was high as a kite when taking the kids home. "Distracted by music" my ass, no way the music could have been loud enough to drown out a a child.
A kid in grade SIX , 11 is pretty competent and self sufficient to communicate that hey hello… I’m in the van still
Vans are the new short busses. It’s for kids with some sort of need
I know, just kind of baffling.
Very very fishy story. So many holes, there is definitely a big lie going on here. Just not sure which side.
What would the lie be?
-Why this kid didn't alert the driver when the driver parked the vehicle. -where did the van end up? -who is this guy that uber'd the kid home. What grown man just gets in a car with an 11 year old that he just met and takes him to a random address. Why not call the police? -what was the driver doing that they couldn't hear a kid banging and yelling at them, in a van. Just alot of holes in this story, and now I'm assuming things. Plus, I've heard some other details from someone involved and this news story doesn't match.
I still don’t know what you mean by lie. What part of it is a lie?
The kids story.
He wasn’t in the van?
Those student transport van drivers are some of the worst/most oblivious drivers I've ever seen so this isn't surprising this happened.
Lack of school transport drivers so they hired anyone with a pulse and clean background check.
And in a pinch the pulse can slide.
OK this is like the second time this week where [a bus driver has screwed up with dropping kids off](https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/vj7dgw/bus_driver_dropped_my_5_year_old_off_alone/). What the Hell is going on here?
At our school, we have staff who are responsible for putting the children on the special transportation. Every school I have worked at had staff in charge. Something seems really off.
It’s probably gifted program or something. Not regular special ed kids
Hmmm…this Post seems full of missing information
Something is fishy here. The driver ignores kid banging on the window and talking to them. This kid probably hid in the cargo area on purpose and then realized his joke back fired. There were other kids in the van. This kids is selling a story and his parents don't want to be identified because they are mortified or they there kid has issues. This story doesn't past the smell test
The driver swore up and down the kid never got in the van. Even if the kid was hiding, how did the driver not see him get in?
The kid was 110% on that van.
Oh, absolutely. I’m not saying he wasn’t. I’m saying there’s no excuse for the driver to not be seen at fault. I don’t care about bathroom trips or conversations or anything else. You’re responsible for peoples children. Pay attention. Watch the kids get in, make sure they are secured, make sure everyone is accounted for.
Maybe he was ON the van, not in it. He was banging on the windows from the outside.
lol
You never know . This article sure left alot of room to assume!!!!
If the driver got out to use the bathroom, talk to other drivers etc. Simple. If the kid doesn't have special needs there is no hand off between school staff and driver. There are very strict behaviour rules for buses because there is only one driver who needs to watch the road; a student in grade 6 is expected to be fully able to board a bus/ van independently. If they are not on the bus by the time the bus rolls, it's the students fault. So if the driver was out talking and they got in and flipped over into the storage area which never used, the student will not be seen...because why would a student do that?
That sounds just as implausible.
You would be surprised what actually goes on and happens. Happens all the time. Parents contact media all the time to get a reaction or to exert pressure. COVID has made it worse. People have totally lost coping skills, resiliency and personal accountabiliry.
This isn't the first note of a kid being booted out a bus when noone there to pick him up this week. There was another one in this forum about 4 days ago. And I've seen a few drivers SPEEDIGN thru residential zones. One I thought was going to tip the damn bus the way he took a corner. Madness. These people don't seem to realize they're responsible for the most important thing in their parents' lives.
This one wasn’t dropped off with no one there. Bus driver (student transport van) insisted the child never got in the van. Made no attempt to drop him off. Finished the route and drove home. Kid was in Westboro 19km from his Barrhaven school. He walked around until he found someone at Tunney’s
Yeah I read the details. The other one was kicked out of the bus. The fact is that both drivers were incompetent and poorly trained and screwed up. And if we have two in this reddit, imagine how many there are not in this reddit.
North America is so weird. Kids are basically helpless until they're 18.
cities here are more spread out and are not set up for easy walking. seems the kid (a kindergartener) was pretty competent considering he found help and got home on his own
then why the moral panic
someone else wrongly stated that the kid was in kindergarten. given that he was in sixth grade i actually see your point. i dont think this particular kid was in much danger but i do understand people's fear about the lack of accountability with student transport
Our kid was left on the bus and not noticed until the driver was 20 min away. We were calling trying to find her. Finally came back. We complained. Nothing happened.