Eastern Pulaski Reviewing Safety Procedures Following Bus Accident

In the wake of the recent school bus accident, Eastern Pulaski School officials are working to see what lessons they can learn going forward.

Superintendent Dan Foster told the school board Monday that a debriefing session had been held earlier that day. “All the administrators, counselors, transportation director, the bus driver Cheryl Warner, Chris Schramm was in there, and then we actually wanted perspective of parents,” Foster explained. “So we had parents of two students that were on the bus that was not involved and two parents of students that were on the bus that was involved.”

He said the goal was to discuss what went well and where the school corporation could improve, should another incident happen in the future. “It was very heartfelt,” Foster said. “It was cordial, constructive. A lot of good comments, both positive and constructive, that we need to take, and now, internally, we will take that with our safety team and say, ‘okay, we need to rework some things here.'”

Foster said that one of the things that has become apparent is the need to plan for incidents involving other schools’ students that may occur within the school district, after Plymouth school employees found themselves having to provide assistance to Eastern Pulaski students. “Then I look at that and say, okay, we definitely need to upgrade our safety plans because what if Knox is traveling to Pioneer one afternoon and something happens with one of their buses, whether it’s during the school day or maybe it’s five o’clock in the afternoon. Are we prepared as a staff here?”

Foster again thanked community members for their support. “Yep, things didn’t go as perfectly as we would’ve hoped,” he acknowledged. “But hopefully, this is the first step in trying to make sure that hopefully it never happens again, but if it does, we’re even more prepared next time.” He said that one of the next steps will be to involve local fire and EMS departments in the discussion.