Handicapped kids can’t catch the bus

By Brandy Centolanza
The Virginia Gazette

April 3 2004

WILLIAMSBURG -- A well-intentioned attempt to preserve the private road in a neighborhood has left two handicapped children struggling to catch the bus.

For two years, homeowners of Shellis Square condominiums on Merrimac Trail have refused to permit WJC school buses to travel the loop, claiming the heavy buses damage roads and sidewalks. Yet trucks are okay.

As a result, Kelley Campbell and Tomeka Cox have to trek through the neighborhood with their disabled children so the kids can board the school bus as it drives along Merrimac Trail. Both girls attend the NEED Center at Norge Elementary.

Campbell's 5-year-old daughter, Brittany, has spina bifida, a condition that results from the failure of the spine to close properly during the first month of pregnancy. She is only able to walk with the aid of a walker or crutches and sometimes is confined to a wheelchair.

“It's a struggle,” Kelley Campbell said of the trek to the bus. “Because it takes longer for Brittany to get on the bus, sympathetic neighbors and drivers on Merrimac Trail have taken it upon themselves to break the law and go around the bus, even though the safety signals are flashing and the stop sign is sticking out.”

Cox faces a similar problem. Her 4-year-old daughter, Tamia, has been diagnosed with Type 1 Lissencephaly, a brain disorder that affects motor and cognitive skills. Tamia can neither walk nor talk, so her mother must carry her to the bus stop all the way from the back of the complex.

The distances are several hundred yards, which is significant for handicapped kids.

“We are expected to go to the front entrance in rain, snow, sleet, hail -- everything,” Cox said. “My daughter is prone to pneumonia, so I often have to keep her home from school when the is bad weather.”

Both women rent their homes in Shellis Square. Campbell has lived there for at least a decade, while Cox moved in last November.

Earlier this month, Cox pleaded with the homeowners association board to at least allow the smaller buses in that are exclusively for handicapped students. She didn't succeed.

“I asked them point-blank what the reason was that the school buses couldn't come into the complex,” Cox said. “They told me that they mess up the speed bumps, and mess up the pavement. I asked them what was more important, the pavement or the children. I was told that it cost a lot of money to repair the roadways.”

Cox pointed out a hole in the argument, noting that garbage trucks, package delivery trucks and moving company tractor-trailers are common in the neighborhood.

“They told me that was because the whole community benefits from those services,” Cox said.

At one point, WJC transportation director Randy Pingley tried to intervene.

“I used the same argument, but it didn't work,” Pingley said. “I don't know why they are against school buses but not other, heavier vehicles.”

Pingley approached city officials for help, but was told that nothing could be done since the roads are on private property.

“This is definitely not something that we chose to do,” Pingley said, referring to WJC Schools.

Other neighbors are perplexed by the rule, since they think it's unsafe for any child to stand out front on the heavily traveled main road.

“Merrimac Trail is a main thoroughfare,” noted Nancy Shelton. “It's dangerous for children to be waiting out there for a bus. It's unfair.”

Brenda Wigginton, a former Shellis Square board member whose husband now serves as the association's president, tells a different story. She said the association once considered allowing just the handicapped buses in. She claims school officials “didn't want any buses coming in, because there was nowhere for the buses to go because the parking lot was too crowded with cars.”

“They made the final decision, not Shellis Square,” Wigginton stated.

“That is not true,” Pingley shot back when told of Wigginton's claim. “This is very upsetting to me.”

Pingley said he pleaded with Wigginton to at least let the drivers finish out the school year, but Wigginton refused. Buses ceased entering the neighborhood in March 2002.

“There is no way that I would not provide a service to a special-needs child,” Pingley insisted. “If I could go door-to-door to pick up the kids, that's what I would do.”

As for the other vehicles, they can enter the complex because “we have to let people move in and out, and we have to let the UPS trucks in because it's the mail,” Wigginton said. “We let the recycling truck come in, but that is just once a week.”

She said school buses used to “come in and out of here all day long. They would come in here at least six times a day. You could tell they were destroying the pavement. It was definitely deteriorating.”

Contradicting her earlier statement, Wigginton then said the decision was made not to let the buses in because the association didn't want to increase annual dues to cover the cost of repairing the roads.

“This is purely financial,” Wigginton said. “We are looking out for the homeowner. Everything in here is maintained by the residents. We don't have the city or VDOT coming in and helping us. This is private property. We don't have to allow the school buses in.”

Campbell is not giving up.

“I have been fighting this for two years, and I will continue to fight this,” she said.

“When you have a handicapped child, usually people are willing to go out of their way to help you the best way they can,” Cox added. “It's heartbreaking and disappointing for our children to have to suffer because of the homeowners association's unwillingness to compromise.”


Copyright © 2004, Virginia Gazette
posted by Las Vegas at 9:12 AM