HISD restores bus route after students were made to wait an hour for another school dismissal

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- It was supposed to be a move to make bus rides shorter. Instead, some HISD parents couldn't believe it when their kids were forced to sit on a bus and wait an hour for another school to dismiss.

Christine Soderstrom can't get the message she received from her daughter this week out of her head.

"It's frustrating," Soderstrom recalled. "It's panic-inducing. Where is my child? Why is my child sitting in front of a school, just sitting there waiting for over an hour."

On Monday, Soderstrom said her daughter's high school bus route from the Third Ward was changed. "We were not given prior notification," Soderstrom recalled.

After getting picked up from her school in the Third Ward, instead of heading home to the Heights, the bus traveled to another school. A campus that let out an hour after her daughter's school.

Instead of getting home around 3:45 p.m., she arrived at 5:15 p.m. "She gets car sick," Soderstrom explained. "So, sitting in an idling bus is not ideal. It's not ideal for anyone."

Soderstorm said she contacted the transportation department. ABC13 spoke to two other parents as well.

They were told the change was permanent. If they were upset, they were all told the same thing.

"They said, 'here is the number to call,' which was Mike Miles phone number," Soderstrom recalled.

Some parents reached out to ABC13. We contacted the district on Wednesday.

At first, they also told us the route was going to stay. The district said it recently made changes.

It discovered 12,000 students weren't taking the bus who signed up. To improve travel times and save money, they made changes.

After hearing from parents and ABC13, the district said it's bringing back Soderstrom's daughter's original route. A change Soderstrom isn't sold on because she's worried to get another message from her daughter.

"Part of me wants to make her ride it so that we get it, so that they understand it is an important route," Soderstrom said. "Part of me isn't sure I want her to sit on a bus for an hour."

HISD said it can still make changes to help with students' bussing. If a student was removed recently, the district said families can opt back in and be added back to their route.

For these students, they're waiting to see if the change was made. They'll have to wait until Tuesday because there weren't classes on Friday or on Monday.

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