Bus Mayhem?

Reacting to reports that some children are preying on weaker children on the City’s school buses, a New York City councilman called Wednesday on the Department of Education to provide monthly reports on school bus incidents.

Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) said he is “troubled” that the issue, which he thought had been dealt with months ago through hearings and the firing of a Department of Education employee, still lingers. While the abuses themselves are unacceptable, it is more unacceptable that the public had not been given accurate information, he said, continuing, “Parents need to know that the situation is being acted on immediately.”

He will introduce his legislation next month.

Councilman Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), the chair of the education committee, noted that while the City spends $1 billion on busing per year, there is “no reason our children can’t be safe [on buses].” Roughly 142,000 children ride school buses every day. Last year 3,547 complaints of alleged abuse on buses were raised de Blasio’s press release.

“Bus drivers can’t be a bus driver and a bus monitor,” said Brooklyn resident A.J. Rothstein. He has already comforted his 5-year-old daughter Michelle’s tears this year, after older children—first-graders—called her names on a bus to their yeshiva school in Midwood.

Rothstein hopes that de Blasio’s legislation and that video cameras Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx) has proposed to be placed buses come to pass.

While the council members acknowledged the progress the Department made last spring after abuse reports first surfaced in the “Daily News,” Councilman John C. Liu (D-Queens) blasted the Department, saying that misinforming the public on the number of abuse cases reported “is indicative of a Department that does not get it,” his voice rising in anger.

In response to the allegations, a Department of Education spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, defended her department via e-mail, saying: “There are incidents that happen and they are dealt with and should not be exaggerated. We take these matters extremely serious. The material in the press recently were cases as old as 2005, and we responded to these cases by making improvements to our investigative unit. We hired a chief manager of our investigative unit who has a military background, and we hired investigators who have either law enforcement or investigation backgrounds.”

Feinberg did not comment on why no monitors are present on buses or how the Department is tracking abuse complaints.

Councilman Peter F. Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens) announced that a public hearing on the safety of children on school buses will take place on Oct. 10.

Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-Staten Island) speaks with, from left to right, Councilmen Peter F. Vallone, Jr., John C. Liu, a representative of James Vacca, Bill de Blasio and Robert Jackson outside City Hall.