Mayor: City won't back down on bus union's job demands as thousands of kids, parents left stranded

Ellis Kaplan

Union members walk the picket line today in Queens.

Thousands of city kids were left stranded this morning when school-bus drivers and matrons went on strike, leaving parents scrambling to find other ways to get their children to school.

Candice Theus, 28, was forced to take her autistic 8-year-old daughter Tatyanna on a 45-minute trek ? including riding a bus, train and a 10-minute walk ? from their Brownsville home to PS 114 in Canarsie.

"She was saying, 'Mommy, I'm tired. I want to take the bus,'" Theus said. "All I could tell her was, 'Well, this is what we have to do right now.'"

Tatyanna will get a MetroCard from her school, but Theus will not because parents only qualify for cards if their kids are in second grade or below.

"It's good they're giving her one, but it's still money out of my pocket."

Theus, who normally works during the day at the Harlem YMCA, said that for the unforeseeable future, she'll be working only three hours each day because she not only has to drop her child off, but pick her up at 2:30 p.m.

"If I don't find someone to pick her up, I'll have to pick her up every day. It's such a big hassle to parents that have to work.

"She's a special needs student, so she relies on the bus."

Mustafa Khan, 34, a yellow cab driver whose two daughters, ages 7 and 9, attend PS 2, lost out on prime business hours.

"I'm losing three hours. I usually start at 5 a.m. and today I'm not going to start until 8 a.m. This is the good time, if you are in the city."

"I don't know what we are going to do if this goes on," said Khan, who rents his cab for $150 a day.

Mark Jones, 34, a mail clerk in Midtown, said it took 45 minutes to drive his 6-year-old son from their home in Far Rockaway.

"I'm going to work late because I had to drop my child off. It's just crazy. The union, the mayor and the chancellor are having their own little ego trip and we pay for it.

"At some point they'll have to come to an agreement or I'll have to take my son out of school and take him somewhere where there's less of a commute."

Robert Kalfus

A livery car driver letting off a child in front of PS 36.

On top of the hassle of the nixed buses, parents said they were concerned for their children's safety.

"I depend on the bus," said Merethe Kaawar, 44, who helps with classes at PS 2, where her daughter Mariam, 11, is in the fifth grade had to walk in the snow and rain.

"My daughter has to take two [MTA] buses to get home."

Kaawar said she can't afford the weekly bus fair to go with her. "It's not safe for kids to take the bus alone. That's why I have to walk with her.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mayor_city_kids_back_down_thousands_rXHuZHTZlC4Ei8dRPz41mI?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Local

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