Concerns Over Lack of School Bus Transportation

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) --- The new school year is bringing new frustrations for some parents in Pittsburgh city schools. Parents are concerned because their children have to walk through rough areas to get to school.

Pittsburgh Public Schools opened on Thursday and some parents are already complaining about a lack of school bus transportation.

The former Langley High School now serves students from Kindergarten through grade 8.

Some parents in Crafton Heights told KDKA-TV News that they are worried about their children's safety and the school district isn't doing enough to safeguard small children.

"They closed the old school, which was a distance to walk. Now, they put them farther out, and I'm worried that somebody's baby is going to get hurt," says Gloria Cowherd of Crafton Heights.

"The street that they want them to go down is the same street where a guy got car jacked," says mother, Kim Hightower.

Students from Crafton Heights and other neighbors have to walk or find other means of school transportation because the Pittsburgh School Transportation
Guidelines state that free bus transportation only kicks in for students who live more than 1.5 miles away.

Students from grades 9 through 12 are eligible for transportation if they live more than two miles from school.

"It's really a shame that there's no bus transportation for these children to go to school" says mother Jessica Fulton.

In Brighton Heights, 10-year-old, Justice Olds says she was approached by a strange man at a Port Authority bus stop, who looked and talked suspicious.

"He was standing there for a minute and then he asked me how old I was," says Olds. "I told him to leave me alone.

Old's mother, Milissa Boschele, says a lack of bus transportation is putting children in more danger than is necessary.

A spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh School District says on two occasions, the district has asked PENNDOT to declare the area near Langley hazardous, which would allow school buses to transport children who live within the 1.5 mile limit of the school.

PENNDOT has since rejected those requests.

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