MENTOR, Ohio — A Mentor couple said the walk to their daughters' bus stop is too dark and dangerous.
Amanda Locee and Kevin Linich said there are no sidewalk or streetlights on their daughters’ walk to their bus stop, which is located at the intersection of Oakridge Drive and Ashwood Trail.
During the winter, they said there is also sometimes as much as three feet of snow on the street.
Their eldest, Jacey, 14, has to catch the bus to Mentor High School at 6:30 a.m.
“So it’s very early, very dark for students I would say of any age to be walking a quarter of a mile down the road,” Locee said.
Their daughter, Quinn, 13, attends Memorial Middle School. She catches the bus at 8 a.m.
The couple said Quinn is the only middle school student at the stop.
“I think if there was more students, if there was a group that walked together, I think being in the dark and being by themselves puts them in a position where they don’t have a buddy system,” she said.
The couple said Mentor Public Schools declined their request to move the bus stop closer to their home.
They made the request after the district moved the elementary school bus stop, which is now located next door to the couple’s home.
"We’re not looking for special treatment,” Linich said. "We’re just kind of looking for the same safety standards.”
"The bus stop that … goes down there is a completly different route at a competely different time so adding another stop — on top of what we already do here — it adds time, it adds dollars,” Lauren Marchaza said.
Marchaza is the vice resident of Mentor Public Schools Board of Education.
She is also the parent of one of the three high school students, including Jacey, who catch the bus at the Oakridge Drive and Ashwood Trail stop.
"My son uses this bus stop,” she said. “It’s a pretty low traffic area, we’ve always felt safe here. So for me it’s always worked pretty well.”
Mentor Public Schools declined our request for an on — camera interview.
Director of Community Relations Kristin Estes sent us the following statement:
"Student safety is a top priority when developing transportation routes and bus stop locations. At the same time, we work to operate our transportation system as safely and efficiently as possible for students across the district.
Mentor Schools provides transportation beyond what is required by the state, including bus transportation for high school students, which Ohio school districts are not required to provide. State regulations also permit students in kindergarten through eighth grade to walk up to one-half mile to a designated bus stop. Our stops are typically much closer to home than that requirement.
Bus stops are determined using a number of factors, including student age, distance from a student’s residence, traffic volume, roadway characteristics, visibility, designated places of safety, the number of students assigned to a stop, the bus’s direction of travel and overall route safety and efficiency.
Elementary, middle and high school routes are developed separately based on the students they serve and the operational needs of each route. Elementary stops are generally located closer to students’ homes because of their age, while middle and high school routes generally utilize more centralized stops when appropriate.
We understand that families may not always agree with a particular bus stop location, and we take those concerns seriously. Our Transportation Department reviews concerns brought forward by families while balancing the individual circumstances with the safety and operational needs of the transportation system as a whole.
Our goal is to continue providing safe, reliable transportation to as many Mentor students as possible while operating routes responsibly and efficiently.”
