Godley ISD Superintendent Rich Dear wants GISD parents to know their children are safe waiting for and riding the buses to school.
Two GISD mothers told Fox 4 this week that students were catching the bus in front of a registered sex offender’s home.
District officials aren’t denying that was the case.
Dear said once the district was alerted to the problem, bus routes were immediately changed and steps were put in place to avoid similar situations in the future.
“What happened was a family moved out of a house [in GISD] and a registered sex offender moved in,” Dear said. “We just didn’t know about it, but as soon as it was brought to our attention, we changed it [the bus stop].”
Dear said GISD has more than 200 bus stops, and with more than 450 sex offenders living in Johnson County, it’s likely that any number of bus stops could be close to the home of a sex offender.
“We had 480 students enroll or withdraw this year,” Dear said. “That’s 30 percent of our population. Needless to say, it’s a daunting task to keep up with our changing demographics.”
GISD bus drivers have been given a map of their bus routes, which includes a list of area sex offenders’ addresses.
“We’re doing everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
Assistant Superintendent of Transportation Joe Danna told Dear on Wednesday afternoon that the company which GISD gets bus route planning software from created options for blacking out certain addresses.
“We’re going to have that in place to ensure this never happens again,” Dear said. “To my knowledge, both of the mothers said they were very happy.”
Texas leaves school bus route policies up to individual districts, which is something the GISD moms want changed.
Parent Stephanie Falter told Fox 4 that Texas needs to have a law to protect children from sex offenders.
Though Dear admitted any such law is a long way off, the district is going to scan for sex offenders before planning bus routes in the future.
Godley ISD
GISD bus stops moved, deemed safe by district
Stop no longer in front of sex offender’s home
- Godley ISD
-
-
Parents want ISDs to be aware
Stephanie Falter and Lisa Chambers, two concerned Godley ISD mothers, said they are pleased their children no longer wait for the bus in front of sex offenders’ homes.
-
GISD bus stops moved, deemed safe by district
Godley ISD Superintendent Rich Dear wants GISD parents to know their children are safe waiting for and riding the buses to school.
-
Dear in new role as GISD super
Former Godley High School Principal Rich Dear is officially the district’s superintendent after almost a year of preparation for the role.
-
Godley ag students learn how to feed, shear livestock
Agriculture students across the county are gearing up for February’s Johnson County Junior Livestock Show and Youth Fair. Godley ISD students are no exception.
-
Most school districts celebrate Christmas
Ask most of the school districts in Johnson County how they feel about “Merry Christmas” or Santa Claus, and the response is the same. Christmas is welcome in most schools, so long as students take care to not play favorites with individual gifts.
-
6-year-old Godley girl dials 911, saves her mother
Taylor Martin, a 6-year-old kindergarten student at Godley Elementary School, said she thought her mother, Elizabeth Miles, was pretending to be asleep when she was actually having a medical emergency that caused her to pass out.
-
County schools offering healthier options
According to the Centers for Disease Control, about one-third of all Americans are obese. More than 22 percent of Texans are obese. That may not come as a surprise, but in Johnson County, the latest numbers from 2008 suggested more than 29.3 percent of adults over the age of 20 tip the scales into the obese category, and the eating habits of Mom and Dad are being passed down to children.
-
Godley students go pink for the cure
For the third year in a row, Godley High School and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America will have a Pink-Out pep rally and wear pink to a football game in support of breast cancer awareness and cure research.
-
Godley ISD announces free and reduced-price meals plan
Godley ISD announced Tuesday its policy for providing free and reduced-price meals for students served under the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.
-
Godley ISD welcomes new agricultural science teacher
Students will notice a new face in the halls at Godley High School in a few weeks. Leslie Bourg, a 2005 Cleburne High School graduate, is set to start as the new agricultural science educator at GHS.
- More Godley ISD Headlines
-
Parents want ISDs to be aware
