Left Behind on the Bus

by Kristina Chew · 2009-01-03 06:10:00 UTC
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Laidlaw school busA job and a place to live. A job utilizing Charlie's strengths and with enough supports---a job coach---for him to do it. A residence in the community---a house in a neighborhood---rather than in an institution where he'd be forgotten and out of sight. These are two of the things I know Charlie'll need when he finishes school. It's a day that sounds far off, but I know it's really right around the corner.

But actually, there's a third thing Charlie's going to need: A way to get back and forth between his home and his job----transportation.

Charlie is not going to be able to drive. He is, thanks to the tireless efforts of Jim, my husband, a champion bike rider, who's able to bike for hours and miles. (A stop for a soda and a snack does help.) Bike riding gives Charlie the freedom of movement that seems to give him focus and to soothe him. But to go to work (provided that he has a job) he'll need some kind of transportation, most likely a bus.

I had to shake my head over a story in yesterday's New York Daily News, about a bus matron, Linda Hockaday, who was fired after leaving 22-year-old Ed Wynn Rivera overnight on a bus on December 31st in Brooklyn. Rivera has cerebral palsy; Hockaday is said to have been in a "rush to see the "Christian Liberace" [one "Dino"] perform at a New Year's Eve church service."

Rivera, 22, who has the mind of a toddler, was found "curled up and rocking inside the bus" 17 hours later, said Assistant District Attorney Lucy Lang. He was hospitalized for hypothermia after temperatures dropped to 15 degrees overnight.

Hockaday's former boss at Outstanding Transport in Brooklyn wasted no time Friday in throwing her under the bus.

"She deserves whatever she gets," fumed Charles Curcio after firing his employee of 18 months. "I would not take her back. It's a disgrace."

Hockaday was arrested and, after she failed to post $5,000 bond, jailed. She has been charged with two counts of felony reckless endangerment, which carries up to seven years in jail.

The whole story leads me to think: Would Charlie yell out that he was still on the bus when it drove into a parking lot and the driver left and the doors were shut? I think he would; I certainly hope so. Nonetheless-I think we need to make sure that he has some essential short phrases:

"Let me out!"

"I need help!"

"Get me outta here!"

Kristina Chew
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