I can't even imagine

Girl, 4 and developmentally disabled, left on school bus for hours


By SHOMARI STONE

KOMO-TV
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND -- A mother is outraged after her developmentally-challenged daughter was left on a school bus for nearly three hours.

"There's anger. There's outrage. There's hurt, just sadness," said the mother, Sarah Rowe.
Rowe put her 4-year-old daughter, Ava Rowe, on a small bus around 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday. The bus driver dropped off two kids at Ordway Elementary School, returned to the bus barn,and forgot all about Ava Rowe, even though the driver was only responsible for three passengers.

The forgotten girl in a car seat on the bus, alone for three hours. The shy young girl has speech apraxia, a neurological disorder that hinders her ability to speak.
When the bus dropped Ava Rowe back at home, her mother noticed something was wrong. Her daughter looked sad.
"She (my daughter) said, 'She (the driver) left. She said, 'I waiting, and waiting, and waiting.' And she told me again and again. She cried, and cried, and cried," Sarah Rowe said. "Eyes all puffy and really upset. With her speech apraxia, she really couldn't verbalize what was going on."
Officials from the Bainbridge Island School District called about an hour later and admitted the driver had made a mistake by failing to follow procedure.
Superintendent Janet Chapel said the bus driver didn't walk through the bus as instructed, but she doesn't know why.
"I don't know if there's an explanation. It certainly did not happen," she said.

And it appears the driver wasn't the only one who didn't follow procedure. Ava Rowe's teacher did not notice she was absent, even though teachers are instructed to check attendance.
"That procedure was not followed," said Sarah Rowe.
Sarah Rowe demands to know why the bus driver still has a job. The driver has been placed on paid administrative leave, but the mother believes she should be fired.
"Absolutely. Now. This second," she said.

District officials expect to wrap up its own investigation into the matter over the next few days.

Washington State Budget Cuts

I received an email detailing the proposed budget cuts in Washington. While it did not include all of them, it did detail the following:

• Reducing health coverage for up to 40,000 low-income people
• Eliminating housing, medical care and drug and alcohol treatment for 27,500 low-income individuals with physical and mental disabilities
• Eliminating adult day health care for 1,900 disabled and elderly people
• Eliminating the universal vaccine program
• Cutting community mental health treatment

This is shocking. To think that 40,000 people will no longer have health coverage. To think that people with disabilities will lose housing, medical care, and drug and alcohol treatment. The vaccine program is going out the window- which is shocking in a state that in some counties already has a vaccination refusal rate of greater than 15%.

While I know that money for our state has to come from somewhere, it is painful to see where it is coming from.

Without Little Bug, I wouldn’t be as aware of this and the impact this will make on people’s lives. It would be just a figure and maybe never even register. With my son and other adults with disabilities I have come to know, my awareness has grown. Little Bug has literally taught me more in his life than I ever learned in my life without him. I am grateful to him and for him.