For students attending Dublin High School who have not yet earned their license, or others who simply cannot get  a ride, Wheels buses have been a reliable way  for getting to and from school. Using a number of quick and easy routes, the bus manages to arrive at school without much trouble. However, starting with the 2017-2018 freshman class, merely getting a seat on the bus has become a struggle. Instead of one bus per stop, that number has doubled and, in some cases, tripled. Even then, the situation is catastrophic- overloading buses, kids shoving each other to get on, and, once they do manage to board the vehicle, they barely have any room to even glance over their shoulder. The only thing students seem to be able to do is hold on to what?, and hope they get to their destination on time.

For students who’ve been taking the bus since their freshman year, the sudden change is, understandably, difficult. “Last year, most of the time I would get a seat on the bus,” junior Angelina Perez, said.

“This year, there are so many people that … I feel like I don’t even have enough room to breathe. I just feel like we need a lot more buses cause honestly… you never know what can happen and just having that many people is really unsafe.” To say that the buses are crowded is  an understatement. In some situations, where a second bus is not available to come and lessen the load, students are literally crammed together. And while normally it is illegal for any passenger to be standing past the yellow line, that day there were nearly a dozen students over the marking. The bus driver, however, did nothing.

There have already been numerous occasions where students arrived late to their first period class. Because the first bus that arrived at their stop was much too full, they were forced  to wait for another bus, likely from a different route. The wait was between 10-20 minutes, further delaying their arrival time to school. Overall, the picture is quite simple to imagine: a vehicle carrying 40 or so students- all of them late because the Wheels company couldn’t adapt to the situation and bring two buses to the stop rather than one.

So has anybody tried to fix the situation yet? Students were told that their parents were required to call the bus company and demand more buses. Only once the company received enough complaints would they actually send more buses. However, a number of parents have already called the company to no avail. Perhaps not enough calls were received? But either way, the end result is the same— crammed buses rushing down the street while valuable class time is rushing down the drain.

Students like Perez believe that the school is responsible: that the solution is in their hands. “Our school’s funded so much, and honestly they… waste their money on other things that are not as important,” she explained. “Like, this is our way to school… this is our life right here and sometimes we have to miss the bus and sometimes we can’t even get on it because there’s not enough room. So yes, I think they have a way to do it. Honestly, if they can pay for like, what, $50,000 for like football then they can pay for another bus here.”

Perez’s comment offers yet another possible solution to this controversial topic. Could the Wheels company not be the only one to blame, but the school as well? However, no matter what opinion comes out on top, Perez was right about one thing.: these Wheels buses are these students’ method of getting to school. Their day begins and ends by stepping foot on and off the bus. And if nothing is done soon, the situation could only worsen .