MONTGOMERY COUNTY, VA -
Falling Branch Elementary School is a mere five hundred feet from Montgomery County's Park and Ride, which serves passengers that take the Megabus and Smart way bus and despite a small shelter and porta-potty, it is so close that some riders have tried to use the school as a pit stop. Frequent Megabus rider Dariush Liske-Doorandish understands why.
"There are no services right here near this parking lot."
Sherri Blevins, who has a fifth grader at Falling Branch, reached out to us and provided us with copies of a school log showing more than fifty interactions between riders and school administrators since 2009. Riders usually just wanted to get out of the cold, get a drink of water, or use the restroom. Nearly twenty times, police were called to the school as a precaution including last week.
"The reason our children have been safe is because of the administration and the staff here. They are on guard because this is a constant problem that they've been fighting," said Blevins.
We asked school leaders why parents were not notified about the frequency of riders entering the school. Spokeswoman Brenda Drake tells us at no time were students in any danger, nor did they have any interaction with these riders.
"It didn't reach the level where we felt we needed to notify parents, the situation just hasn't reached that level," said Drake.
Since the latest run-in, school leaders added more signage and now lock or man every door after hours, all doors except the main door are locked during school.
