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Now Reading: Day 1 School Recap: a decent day & a school bus clusterf**k

Day 1 School Recap: a decent day & a school bus clusterf**k

Decent first day of school (at a new school) for the king.  He definitely showed them all his tricks to try & avoid doing any work (hitting, throwing things, etc) but the teacher & staff are really great and seem used to and well equipped to handle his behavior.
The school bus situation on the other hand was an absolute clusterf**k.
Bus showed up 45 minutes late, we’ll chalk that up to first day scheduling. I’ll give them a pass on that.
The bus shows up, the nurse is on the bus, yay!, but they say “we’ve got a bit of a problem, there’s not a seat for your son”
And there wasn’t.
It wasn’t that there was too many kids on the bus. It was that they physically pulled out a bunch of seats.
Hours later I deduced that probably had something to do with the nurse. Someone probably  saw a nurse on his bus order and maybe they assumed he was in a wheelchair.
We were planning on following the bus for the first day anyway. So we ended up driving him to school.
I think deep down the king was looking forward to the bus ride since we hyped it up so much so maybe that started his day off on the wrong foot?  Although he was extremely happy in the car ride up with mom and dad
Anyway he ended up being 45 minutes late but the parking lot was still filled with buses so lots of the buses had time issues on the first day.
By the way this busing clusterf**k has nothing to do with the new school. It has to do with our city’s school district (remember the king goes to school out of district) and the school bus company.
So after dropping him off and chatting with his new teacher wifey and I went to a diner near the school to lick our wounds and start making some phone calls.
And without going thru all the details…
As we expected after multiple phone calls and voicemails absolutely nothing got resolved before the end of the school day so we ended up driving him home too.
And we are not sure if and when the bus is coming tomorrow.
We know this will all get resolved. We’ve heard from lots of parents around here that the busing is always a clusterf**k the first few days.  With all that being said it was a bit of a stressful day. And I only planned to take off for the first half of the day but I ended up taking off the full day.
Alas, tomorrow wifey is on her own because luckily this daddy needs to go to work tomorrow.
🙂
My prediction is that this won’t all get resolved and the king won’t get into a good groove with school until the end of the month cuz he’ll be out a lot between Jewish holidays and his upcoming overnight EEG.
Anyway, all in all a decent day for the king but a stressful day for mom & dad.
And I should feel fine saying “a decent day” for the king but sometimes I feel like there’s so many people in our lives that are rooting for us and the king.  Between family, friends and AD followers it feels like there’s a TON of people invested in his majesty and they all want to hear good news.
“How was his first day?” Wifey was getting calls and texts like that throughout the day. They want to hear good news.  And “a decent day” isn’t what they want to hear.
That’s my problem though. I gotta get over that. Deep down a decent day was what I was expecting but sometimes the pressure to wanna give people good news gets to me ya know?
Anyway that’s all I got..
Wow this blog post took a left turn at the end there!
THE END!

Written by

Frank Campagna

I’m a 48 year old neurotypical dad with a 14 year old son with severe, non-verbal autism & epilepsy. I created this blog to rant about autism & epilepsy while celebrating my son who I affectionately call “the king” :-).


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7 People Replies to “Day 1 School Recap: a decent day & a school bus clusterf**k”

  1. Will

    I am a former special education student when was actual high functioning autism. I can tell you I hate those short buses on the way home they took a long time to get you home and those emotionally disturbed kids hitting people and cussing. this is especially bad in middle school I live in California Long Beach you want to be specific and I went to school almost in another county so would have not been feasible for me to walk home or anything so they sent me on the short bus. I would always get home late like 5 p.m. school let out 3. I said a screw it and high school got on the city bus this is much closer to my house the high school than the middle school. our local contractor for school buses was called Atlantic Express apparently there was some scandal with them other contractors included Laidlaw and first student.my school district didn't have issues with Jewish holidays but considering the high number of Jewish employees the mo well-known Los Angeles Unified School District headset scheduling concerns so sometimes they didn't have school that day.this is all about 10 years ago I'm not that old.because of some liberal apparently in my school district you couldn't restrain the violent kids on the school buses but in Los Angeles you could if you had a certain doctors note. it seemed that was an issue once that have played a role in the bus accident.

  2. YOU ARE DOING AWESOME! MY SON TO IS NONVERBAL! I FEEL THE HAPPINESS FOR HIM ALONG WITH THE FRUSTRATION! BUT HE IS LUCKY TO HAVE YOU!!

  3. You know, sometimes a decent day is more than we could hope for. With all the issues you face on a daily basis with your sweet son's needs, the last thing you need to worry about is him letting down everyone that is rooting for you guys! I mean, think about it….. his first day at a new school, with new people, new teacher, etc. combined with the drama of the bus situation…and yet he still had a "decent" day? That's pretty darn good in my book! If anyone else has an issue that his day wasn't good enough, then that is their problem, not yours! I say that despite all the drama you and your wife dealt with regarding the bus it was a successful day! Take a deep breath and remember- it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, only that you do what is right for your son and appreciate the victories along the way (no matter how large or small!)

  4. YEAH for a Decent Day, it means the teachers now know some of what to expect… my young man was "outstanding" for him and well above the expectations of the teachers at his new school (middle school) for the last two weeks… very little issue… UNTIL TODAY… several emails and discussions about what can we use as motivation/ any suggestions to get him to do so and so or to NOT do such and such… I shook my head and answered nicely – will discuss with his therapists and see what I can do to help, but welcome to "Evan'sworld" you passed the sneakers test of make you think I'm good and quiet and "now I'll show the "real me" lol Hang in there, Buses can be great and can suck… They chance the physical BUS (number size etc) on us every few days and sometimes put him on a different bus altogether, at this point as long as he gets home in ONE PIECE, without melting down or having to have someone go onto the bus and pick up the entire contents of his backpack, coat pockets, pants socks shoes… hey we are good!… Wish you luck, love and patience… and a nice day at "work" 😉

  5. Autism Daddy, I think the best thing is that ya'll got through this day. It doesn't have to be the best day ever, or even great. You three got through it, so celebrate that. I would much rather read what really happened rather than a sugar coated verson anyway. You and Austim mommy have very real daily struggles, and I definantly respect what you go through. It is so easy to see how much you love your son in your post, even when your really frustrated. I can tell you want what is best for him. Keep on trucking, when you have a really great day, we will all be happy with you. When you have the not so great days, we will still be there to listen….er read. take care.

  6. I was bus co-ordinator for a couple of years! You really are doing oak
    I had met kids dropped off at wrong school, had kids left on the bus, and everything in between. I never lost a student and demanded my drivers do a run with me – let me tell you how fast the pick ups and drop offs improved!
    There is no excuse and transportation is part of his IEP
    There will be compensatory services unless bus gets it right from day 1
    The bus co wasn't given address yesterday or this AM
    Good luck!

  7. Anonymous

    Hey Autism Daddy – Have you seen this? https://youtu.be/LGj47A14naM
    We are the Grandparents to a 3 year old, possible non-verbal Grand Daughter. We love how honest, open and real you are about the King and would love your opinion.
    Thank you – Grandma TJ