BUFFALO, NY -- You trust them to bring your child to and from the classroom safely, but some Buffalo parents say they have concerns about the school bus.
At a community forum hosted by the non-profit No More Tears, parents and concerned citizens had the chance to sit down with management from First Student, the bus company for Buffalo Public Schools.
During the forum, topics ranged from bus drivers speeding, to kids getting dropped off in the wrong location. However, for mother Felicia Taylor, it was a chance to find out what will change after her son was seriously hurt while on the bus last week.
"He was riding home and there was a little boy who was kicking him and my son pushed his legs away and a boy stood up somewhere behind him and must have taken off his belt. At this point and my son saw the belt and told the bus driver, 'he has a belt,' " said Taylor.
Taylor's six-year-old son Aiden was hospitalized after he was hit in the head with a belt by a student. Aiden needed staples to heal the laceration, but is recovering. Taylor says this incident could have been avoided if a bus monitor was on his bus.
First Student WNY Area General Manager Sean McCabe said the company has a bus driver shortage much like the rest of the country.
"We do our best, probably better than some companies can do with a big enterprise like this, but we could do a much better job here if we had another 40 or 50 people,: McCabe said. "Which we're hoping to hire this school year."
A spokesperson for Buffalo Public Schools says student safety is a priority and of the 600 bus runs in the district, 418 of them have bus monitors.