SPECIAL REPORT
Persistence Pays Off South Carolina special needs student advocates for cleaner school buses
Written By Ryan Gray |
ryan@stnonline.com
Jack Kendrick takes in the new propane school bus that was delivered to him at his Greenville, South Carolina middle school in September 2020.
I
f it involves a yellow school bus, there is a good chance Jack Kendrick has played with it, read it, watched it, or even worn it. The love affair dates to age 4, when the boy first started riding the school bus
to pre-kindergarten class. It has provided structure to his life, which is important for all children but especially Jack. He was born with autism as well as bilateral complex clubbed feet, which his mother Shawn explained last month during a telephone interview meant both feet were completely turned inward. He was 7 days old when doctors at Shriners Children’s hospital in Greenville, South Carolina, placed both feet in casts. Over the years, Jack underwent several surgeries to correct the condition. The last procedure was many years ago, for the boy who this month starts his freshman year at Greenville High School. “When you watch him walk it might be a little bit dif-
ferent but he gets around just fine,” his mother added. And through everything his trusty friend, the yellow school bus has been by his side. One of his favorite videos to watch, Shawn shared, is from the “How’d They Build That?” DVD on school bus manufacturing. “He’s listened to that 100,000 times, putting on the
flooring, the rivets, where to cut in an emergency,” Shawn said. “He likes all different things about buses. With going to school he just became so enamored with buses
16 School Transportation News • AUGUST 2022
because it meant going to school and he likes going to school, and he likes the structure of school and all.” But entering high school, the now 14 year old has to part ways with the propane bus he successfully pe- titioned for last school year, the first in the state for a special needs route. “He’s very sad because the special needs bus that he got
is assigned to League Academy the middle school and it’s not going with him. He’s like, ‘How do I get my bus to go with me?’” she laughed. “He’s got his letter. He’s going to ask for it.”
And if this campaign is anything like the last, Jack and his classmates should soon be riding to school and home again on a brand new cleaner-emissions bus.
Eye on the Prize Part of Jack’s autism, Shawn shared, is repetitiveness
and focus. Those traits came in handy in 2019, when Jack, then a sixth grader at League Academy mid- dle school in Greensville, would pass a certain school bus with a pretty sticker affixed next to the door, as he walked to board his own school bus each afternoon. The shiny sticker read, “Propane.” He learned they were good for the environment. So, he wanted one for himself and his classmates, too.
PHOTO BY MIKE BULLMAN
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