CAPE CORAL — A father is in a fight with the Lee County School District to make his kids’ bus stop safer.
Richard Bock tells us he wants the stop moved off of a busy roadway and onto a neighborhood street, but this week his request was denied.
We were there Friday afternoon as the bus dropped of Bock’s children on the side of El Dorado Blvd. It’s a busy street with four lanes of cars and a speed limit of 45 miles per hour.
But just one street over there’s a bench and a picnic table. That’s where Bock said the kids should be getting dropped off.
"There is less traffic, there is a bench, there are areas that designate that as a bus stop," said Bock.
Bock submitted a detailed drawing to the District, illustrating the change he’s requesting.
But after two rounds of review, this week the School District told him it wasn’t moving the stop.
"When I asked why they declined it, they said that meant that this meets state guidelines. That was it," said Bock.
We reached out to the School District, and it confirmed a transportation committee decided not to move the stop.
But the District provided us with a checklist for what constitutes an acceptable bus stop, and the stop on El Dorado Blvd. was missing the first one: a sidewalk. The stop was also not 50 feet from an uncontrolled intersection, another point on the checklist.
"There’s nothing here to project that there’s kids right here. There’s nothing," said Bock's daughter Rylee Bryant.
Bryant gets off at the stop every day. She said she wants the stop moved as well, and she was surprised when her father’s request was denied.
"I was just angry about it because me and my brother’s safety and other kids’ safety is on the line here," said Bryant.
Bock said he hopes the School District will reconsider, because he’s afraid of what could happen if they don’t.
"Do something before there’s a problem, not when there becomes a problem, or when there is an issue where a kid does get hit," said Bock.
Bock also said, when he went to make his request to have the stop moved, there were several other parents there doing the same thing.
He said he’s worried there may be many more stops like the one in his neighborhood all across the District that may not be safe.
The School District maintains that all of its stops meet or exceed state safety requirements.
