Advocates Demand 911 Calls On School Buses

A year after TaLea Turnage died following a medical emergency on a school bus, education advocates stood on the steps of City Hall and called for district officials to change their bus safety policies.

Gwen Samuel, director of the advocacy group Teach Our Children, demanded at the rally Friday afternoon that the district have bus drivers call 911 before calling bus dispatch in the case of medical emergencies, instead of calling dispatch first.

New Haven Public Schools contracts transportation services to First Student, a private company.

The small group of activists handed out books to passersby in order to encourage literacy in honor of TaLea. Samuel called on local and state authorities to push districts across Connecticut to update their policies, to keep students safe.

“No one should be denied the right to call 911,” Samuel said.

City and district officials said their policy follows national school transportation practice for student safety.

“No one denies the tragic nature of the circumstances surrounding the death of TaLea Turnage on this date last year; everyone appreciates the unspeakable sadness her family has endured since. After this incident, New Haven Public Schools and First Student conducted an extensive review and confirmed the district’s policies and protocol are in line with the highest industry standards. The nationwide school transportation industry practice directing medical emergencies through dispatch not only pinpoints the location of the affected bus, but allows a range of first responders to coordinate an immediate response,” mayoral spokesperson Laurence Grotheer said in a statement.

Eight-year-old TaLea, a student at Lincoln-Bassett School, became unresponsive on a school bus last March 16, likely due to a heart attack, and died two days later. It was unclear whether 911 had been notified.

Newhallville Alders Alfreda Edwards and Brenda Foskey-Cyrus called for the Board of Alders to hold hearings prompting the district to update its protocol. The Education Committee voted Sept. 8 on recommendations for an updated protocol for medical emergencies on buses.

Bus drivers should either be able to call a specific dispatch channel directly during emergencies or to call operators dedicated just to those emergencies, so they would not be put on hold during times of crisis, alders recommended.

That is not enough, Samuel said. ​“Suppose the dispatcher is busy,” she said. ​“The person that’s at the immediate site is the one that should be calling 911.”

The policy is ​“archaic,” said advocate Ron Ward. Now that bus drivers and students on the bus have cell phones, instead of just one two-way communication device, drivers should be required to call 911 first, he said.

In the past, advocates have asked the district to make bus monitors available on certain buses, to be responsible for students while the driver is occupied. District officials have called that plan expensive. Putting a monitor on each bus could cost $2.3 million, said district transportation director Teddi Barra last fall.

But some of the policies advocates want do not cost anything, Samuel and parent advocate Megan Ifill argued Friday. ​“Every bus doesn’t need a bus monitor,” she said. And requiring bus drivers to call 911 first costs nothing.

Ifill said she has only heard of one district in the state that allows drivers to call 911 first. ​“This needs to be a statewide initiative” that New Haven should prioritize, she said.

TaLea’s mother and godmother stood silently in front of City Hall with the protesters. They declined to comment to the press.

Click above to hear Ifill, Barra, and Beaver Hills Alder Richard Furlow discuss changes to bus safety regulations on WNHH Community Radio’s ​“In Transit.”