Mountain Rides will no longer be serving the 3:30 p.m. southbound Valley Route at the Albertsons and the Fairfield Inn stops due to a number of reports of misconduct by Wood River Middle School students taking the bus after school, Mountain Ride’s Manager of Transit Operations Jamie Canfield told the Express.
“Disrespectful” behavior by middle school-aged children led to the removal of the stops along the long-running route in April, Hailey Police Chief Steve England confirmed.
“The students would go to Albertsons and display kind of a mob-mentality, and after that, they would go to catch the southbound bus” he said. “They were very disrespectful and hugely hyper from getting out of school for the day. There was a severe lack of manners and respect to other patrons on the bus.”
There were also incidents of fighting at the stops and on the bus, England said.
“That’s really what got everyone’s attention,” he said. “There was a fight that we were looking at a couple misdemeanor and basic disturbing the peace charges. Everyone was looking to do this for a while now, but once that happened, now they are fighting at the bus stop and taking over the whole bus. Mountain Rides has chosen to stop service at these stops at that timeframe.”
According to Mountain Rides, the southbound stops will be temporarily suspended until the end of the school year, when Mountain Rides, Hailey Police and the Blaine County School District will reassess to see if those southbound stops would reopen in the summer and beyond.
School Resource Officer Shawna Wallace, a member of the Hailey Police Department assigned to Wood River Middle School, said that the Blaine County School District’s bus still operates on normal hours, so transport is still available for students.
“The kids that normally ride at these stops have access to a school bus,” she said. “We have worked with parents, and for kids that need transport somewhere else, they still have access to the school bus, but not Mountain Rides.
“The kids that will be good can still get to where they need to go from the district school bus.”
England said the change has so far achieved the desired result.
“We are already seeing the effects,” he said. “We haven’t seen kids loitering and being disruptive in the two-block radius around Albertsons.” 
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(8) comments
This isn’t a school bus. It’s a Mountain Rides bus. This is a stupid way of dealing with childish behavior.
Why not have a cop in the vicinity during the half hour or so this happens, until the kids find other ways to amuse themselves?
And what about the poor behavior on the bus?
Just kids being kids. Good move, make them walk home, from what I’ve seen, most can use the exercise.
You don’t arrest kids for being disrespectful. You notify the parents and require them to ride with the child. You only need to do this once.
Zero tolerance on the school bus. After the first infraction a student loses the privilege of taking the bus and it is up to the parents to transport them to and from school.
Ridiculous response. How about arresting the offenders?
Children? You are part of the problem.
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