Protesters held signs Monday afternoon outside Atlanta Public Schools headquarters that read "Where's The Bus Mommy?" and they chanted "Child neglect from APS."
An hour later, they moved inside for the city school board meeting, where a dozen speakers blasted a transportation policy they said is forcing children to walk to school through dangerous neighborhoods.
APS spokesman Keith Bromery said before the meeting that Superintendent Erroll Davis hasn't changed the system's transportation policy, he's just enforcing it. In previous years buses picked up students within a mile of elementary schools and within a mile and a half of middle and high schools as a "courtesy."
This year, to contain costs, buses are no longer picking up the children as a courtesy, Bromery said. But the school board has come under wider criticism for its redrawing and realigning of bus routes, reducing bus service at some schools and causing delays for some in getting to school, which started last week. The moves were made in the face of a tighter budget that includes an expected decline of $20 million in property tax revenue.
State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, told the protesters on the street that "the superintendent's attitude is it's not a school board problem" but a crime problem that City Hall or the Atlanta Police Department should handle.
Inside, Fort was the first to speak during public comment. He told the board there had been three rapes of school-age children in the Pittsburgh community near Turner Field in the past three years, and the neighborhood was too dangerous for children to walk to school.
"I implore you to put those buses back on those mean streets," Fort said.
One woman who takes care of six children in the neighborhood identified one of the rape victims as her daughter. "You say no child left behind," the woman said. "But these children are being left one mile behind."
Byron Amos, vice chairman of the school board, made a motion afterward to further discuss the transportation matter. The motion passed unanimously.
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