Norfolk to Halt Publishing Bus Stops , Citing Safety Issues

By AMY COUTEe

By Amy Coutee

The Virginian-Pilot

Norfolk Public Schools will no longer list school bus stops in newspapers or on its Web site.

“As the world is changing, we just felt like it was the prudent thing to do,” said John W. Hazelette, Norfolk’s senior director of transportation services . “There’s just a lot of information that’s out there that we don’t think should be out there.”

Reasons for the change include custody disputes between parents, terrorism concerns and possible abduction from a bus stop, Hazelette said.

Bus routes, stop locations and times have been published in newspapers and on the Internet in the past . The division is in the process of removing the old information from the Norfolk city schools Web site.

Norfolk is one of four school divisions in the region, along with Newport News, York and Williamsburg/James City County, that have stopped publishing school bus routes.

Suffolk Public Schools is reconsidering its policy on publishing bus routes.

Lonnie Reavis, Suffolk’s school transportation coordinator, said his department has discussed not posting bus route information because pedophiles might use the information. “It’s always a concern,” said Reavis, whose division will transport about 14,000 students this year.

In Norfolk, bus route information will be mailed to students’ homes by the end of this month, and an automated telephone call will remind parents that it is on the way. Parents also can call their child’s school for bus route information.

Teachers will continue to have access to the information on a secure internal Web site.

Hazelette said the change will cost the division about $2,000 for the mailings.

The biggest challenge is in making sure addresses and telephone numbers are correct.

“We think there are more positives than negatives,” Hazelette said. “We think this is in the best interest of the children.”

Transportation officials in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Portsmouth – which together expect to transport 115,000 students this year – will continue to publish their bus routes.

John Veal, transportation coordinator for Portsmouth Public Schools, said his division doesn’t have the software it would take to get the information out another way.

David Pace, Virginia Beach City Public Schools transportation services director , said not publishing routes would not prevent someone from finding out where bus stops are in his city.

“It ain’t gonna work for Virginia Beach, I can tell you that,” Pace told transportation officials Tuesday morning when they met in Virginia Beach.

“In 25 years I’ve never had a child abducted from a school bus stop,” Pace said.

Amy Coutee, (757) 222-5562, amy.coutee@pilotonline.com

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