Keyes teens crowd into Turlock-bound school bus

A doubling up of Keyes students on a school bus heading to Pitman High School in Turlock has created one tightly packed route and drawn community protests.

Pictures posted on Facebook of kids sitting in the aisle, which is against state law, raised officials’ eyebrows. But the 70 teens now squeezing into the full-size bus are well short of the 84-kid legal limit for that vehicle, said Turlock Unified School District Superintendent Sonny Da Marto.

“Needless to say, the students should not have been in the aisle, and we will ensure this does not continue,” Da Marto said by email Friday.

The Keyes Union School District serves children through eighth grade. For high school, most Keyes students attend Pitman. Some drive to school or get rides from parents, and the remainder ride the Turlock buses, said Keyes Superintendent Cynthia Schaefer.

There are just under 150 Keyes students going to Pitman by bus this year, Da Marto said. They were being taken in four buses carrying 35 to 40 students each. Two 35-student routes were recently combined into one 70-student route.

“We made this decision in order to enhance the efficiency of the department,” he said.

But former Keyes Parent Teacher Club President Sandy Yoppini posted photos of a crowded bus on Facebook, writing, “Parents of Pitman students who reside in Keyes. The buses your kids are riding on are severely overcrowded.” The post urges parents to complain to the Turlock district director of transportation and have their kids take more photos.

Contacted by The Modesto Bee, Yoppini said she was told the change happened in late March, just before spring break. “One of the students brought it to my attention yesterday and asked for help,” she said in a message.

In the shots on her page, the bus appears to have two kids per seat, with a third perched on the edge or crouched in the aisle. According to the California Highway Patrol, which is tasked with regulating school buses, capacity limits make no distinction between three 5-year-olds sharing a seat and three 18-year-olds.

“The capacity of a Type 1 (large bus) school bus can vary from 78 to 84 depending on the make/model of the bus. The capacity is the same for elementary-aged students as it is for high school-aged students, though not recommended,” CHP officer Alex Ramos said Friday via email. Ramos is school bus officer for the Modesto area CHP office.

This story was originally published April 17, 2015 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Keyes teens crowd into Turlock-bound school bus."