A couple weeks ago, my friend and I put in a request to the main office asking for a form that says she would be allowed to ride the bus home with me in order to work on a school project that was assigned. Both of our parents wrote notes confirming it was okay for her to come home with me. 

     No big deal, right?But it was.

     We proceeded to go about our day like normal. We heard nothing all day regarding whether or not the request for her to ride my bus was approved. Eventually, two minutes before dismissal, my friend was called up to the office. 

     The request was denied with no explanation given. She was stranded. There was no other way for her to get home unless she waited, so she tried to get on my bus anyway. 

     The bus driver told us we had to leave, even after I gave him a note personally from my mother; but, it didn’t matter. We had to wait half an hour before someone could get us. I don’t understand.

     Certainly it makes sense  that there is a system, and I understand needing a request to ride another’s bus for safety purposes and so that parents know where their kid is heading at all times. But I don’t understand why THIS request was not approved.

     It’s not like we were scheming to do something bad.  We were issued a school project that needed to be completed outside of school. The easiest way to do it was to ride the bus home because of distance and parents’ jobs. These seem reasonable reasons to authorize a pass.

     And if it was not going to be approved, why wait so long to approve or deny a request.  That leaves NO time for the student to react, communicate, or make alternative plans.   I wouldn’t be happy if it had been denied earlier in the day, because it’s whatever at that point. But, it was denied two minutes before we had to leave. 

     What if it was my friend’s only source of transportation for hours? What would happen then? 

      It’s all really about timing. Better timing could have made everything fine, but time was lost. I do understand the whole system; it was just really bad timing and circumstances. I think that overall, if we were told earlier during the day that my friend could not ride the bus home with me, things could have ended much better and a lot less complicated.