INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
TO CARRY OR NOT? On Nov. 27, 2012, Wilma Acosta,
a school bus driver for the Franklin McKinley School District in San Jose, Calif., dropped off a load of stu- dents and was about to leave for her next stop with a wheelchair-bound special needs student aboard when she detected smoke coming from the engine compartment of the bus. When she tried to get the student out of the bus, she learned the fire had damaged the electrical system because the wheelchair lift was not working. At that point, necessity forced Acosta to her last resort. According to news reports, Acosta pushed the wheelchair back inside the bus, unbuckled the child and physically carried her safely to a
18 School Transportation News February 2013
PLANNING SUCCESSFUL SPECIAL NEEDS BUS EVACUATIONS, INCLUDING STUDENTS IN WHEELCHAIRS WRITTEN BY ART GISSENDANER
bench far away from the vehicle. By that time, the bus was engulfed in flames. Brent Hull, transportation director
at Franklin McKinley, said Acosta did the right thing, although district policy required her to evacuate the student in the wheelchair. “I believe it was the right decision,
because any delay and the student would breathe in toxic smoke,” Hull said. “Te policy is to leave the child in the wheelchair. But if time is of the essence and the ramp cannot be deployed, then yes, lifting them out or laying them down on a blanket or even a jacket and dragging them out the back door is the right thing to do.” According to experts, emergency
school bus evacuations for medically fragile special needs students must be planned and adequately staffed. But the question remains on whether to evacuate students in their wheel- chairs or remove them from the wheelchairs and carry or drag them to the emergency exit. Sue Shutrump, supervisor of occupational therapy services for the Trumbull County Education Service Center in Ohio, said her biggest concern is that many bus drivers are being told to evacuate the child from the bus in the wheelchair. She said some of those wheelchairs could weigh up to 400 pounds, which could also injure the employee. “It’s not even realistic,” Shutrump
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