LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Pulaski County Special School District Superintendent Charles McNulty says the district is reviewing its bus policies and procedures after an elementary student was run over after a drop-off on May 12.
"It's what you just don't want to hear," McNulty said. "The worst call you get as an educator is that a child has been hurt."
According to Lt. Cody Burk with the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department, the school bus driver thought the road was clear after dropping off students but didn't realize one of the kids had fallen.
Burk said the back tire of the bus ran over the student.
McNulty said accidents like this are unacceptable.
"We transport 7,313 students daily, over 644 miles," McNulty said. "We can't afford even one mishap."
The accident is under investigation.
"We're gonna make sure that we do a full investigation," McNulty said. "Not only the practices but also the context of the drop-off and ensure that we don't have the situation again."
There are some things McNulty said there's a handful of things the district needs to do, including covering medical bills.
"I think the district is going to be fully responsible as we move forward," McNulty said.
Revamped training and procedures for bus drivers are also in the works.
"I think it's fair to say there's going to be practices and procedures that might be altered," McNulty said. "Especially given a particular context of a drop-off, delivery, or pick-up."
Those pieces of training happened Wednesday. While there's no guarantee that something like this will never happen again, McNulty said he wants to make sure they lower those odds even more.
"We do everything in our power to learn, change and make it even safer than yesterday," McNulty said.