CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A woman says her fifth-grade son was kicked off a school bus for the rest of the year because of a mask-wearing infraction.
Leilani Provencal posted a photo of an “inappropriate bus behavior notification” slip-on Facebook, which said her son, Brody Heath, 9, had not worn his mask over his nose.
The slip said it was Heath’s second offense for prohibited behavior on the bus. But Provencal told the Caledonian-Record the first warning her son received was for using an electronic device, not for wearing his mask incorrectly.
“I thought I was being punked I thought it was a joke,” she said. “I still can’t wrap my head around why this is a reasonable response to 9 and 10 year-olds.”
Provencal said her son, who goes to school in Monroe, lowered his mask Tuesday after accepting a mint from a friend, and that she’s struggling to understand how there’s no tolerance for a child making a mistake.
“We said, ‘Did they give you hard time? Did the boys not listen?’ No they put it back, they followed the direction, but because they did in the first place they are off for the rest of the school year,” she said.
“I’ve tried really hard to get my head around this and it just doesn’t make sense,” she wrote in the Facebook post.
Provencal told the newspaper she called the bus company who told her they had a zero-tolerance policy for safety infractions related to the pandemic.
Messages were left Friday with the bus company, JPI Transportation, and school officials.
Provencal said she was told by school board members that the school district could not alter bus company policy, but that the issue could be discussed at the next board meeting, on Oct. 19.
In a statement, the school district wrote:
“The Monroe School District is aware of the incident and is continuing to work with the bus company and the family on a reasonable resolution.”
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