Seniors’ wild ride to Disneyland: Texting driver, smelly bus and more

Members of the Gregori High Class of 2016 will never forget their senior trip, a chartered bus fiasco Friday that left some teens out, made others late, and took 48 on a wild ride long before they ever reached Disneyland. The school arranged for dozens of families to get their money back, but a few furious parents are threatening to sue.

“A lot of people were saying they got there late. We’re lucky we got there at all,” said Noah Spencer, one of 48 seniors on Bus 6. He made the most of his time at the park, however, even taking a spin on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. “Hey, it’s Disneyland,” he said. “They don’t call it the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ for nothing.”

Seven of the eight buses Gregori charted through Adventures America for the May 13 trip arrived late. One never came at all, stranding 36 students. Another arrived hours behind schedule May 13, one of the few nights Disneyland reserves for high school seniors, staying open until 2 a.m.

But Bus 6 stood alone as “a horrible bus, a horrible experience,” as Principal Brad Goudeau told a crowd of about 400 at a meeting called at the school Monday.

Students described a dirty bus with its check engine light on and a speedometer and tachometer that never moved off zero. The luggage racks smelled “like something had died,” as Spencer put it, and the air conditioning system never turned on. The bathroom had no sink, only a faucet mounted over a flat metal plate with no soap, and an empty beer can in the trash.

The driver spoke no English and spent much of his time texting on a cell phone, sometimes removing both hands from the wheel, passengers said. In three separate conversations, teens said they saw the driver talking on one phone, texting on a second and driving with his elbows as the bus flew down the highway.

“There were lots of times we came within a foot of other vehicles and the divider,” Spencer said as classmate Kyle Shaw nodded agreement.

The driver missed the scheduled lunch stop. Chaperones gave the seniors a choice of driving back an hour and a half to eat or just moving forward. Not helping, several students said, was a rowdy group of 15-20 kids doing “stupid teen stuff,” being loud and obnoxious up and down the aisle.

A California Highway Patrol officer pulled the bus over after it veered out of a carpool lane between entry points, crossing a divider stripe of four solid yellow lines, passengers said. After talking with the CHP officer for 15-20 minutes, the driver reboarded and the bus drove on. Accounts varied on whether the driver was cited for an unsafe lane change or given a warning.

Bus 6 was the last of the Gregori fleet to arrive, dropping off students at Disneyland around 6:15 p.m.

For the return trip, the school demanded a new bus and different driver. Teens waited from 2 a.m. until about 4:30 a.m. in the Disneyland parking lot for the new bus, much of that spent waiting for the old bus to return to retrieve their belongings. Its brakes were too low on air to safely drive.

At last, however, the old bus returned and a new bus and driver arrived. The new Bus 6 pulled into the Gregori lot nearly 36 hours after its occupants first arrived for their trip.

About 380 seniors arrived between 4:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. Friday for their journey to Disneyland. Five buses were underway by 8 a.m., only an hour past schedule.

The last bus out, Bus 7, left nearly three hours later, depositing 51 Gregori students in the Disneyland parking lot at 5:30 p.m., several hours after the target time of 3 p.m.. The district arranged for those students to get $100 back from the $260 each senior paid to go on the trip, Goudeau told the crowd.

“Good thing I took my kids to Disneyland 12 times,” said Jeremy Middleton, whose daughter Kylie was on Bus 7. “She was still pissed,” he added.

Out of 380 seniors who paid to go on the trip, 36 students missed out on the trip entirely. Those families will get more than full reimbursement, about $285, Goudeau said.

Shelby James was among those 36, left sitting after apparently not hearing the call to fill in on Bus 7 when the eighth bus never showed.

“For three months she walked streets selling candy bars (to earn the money),” said mom Vonda James. Her daughter and friends had made matching shirts to wear together at Disneyland, but the other girls went on an earlier bus, James said.

“We don’t want the money. We want the experience,” Vonda James said.

Bus 6 riders will get a full refund, $260, Goudeau said.

“There’s nothing we are going to be able to provide that will fix what was broken on Friday for our seniors. It is what it is,” Goudeau said.

Goudeau and his staff worked throughout the senior trip ordeal to iron out problems with the Richmond-based Adventures America charter. Reached Monday, an Adventures America spokeswoman said the company had sub-contracted with MGM Transportation, which had further subcontracted out to other bus providers. Neither company answered phone messages or emails from the Bee on Tuesday.

Seniors Kellie Baker, Alexa Aufderheide and Annelle Jacobe said the school had done all it could, that they blamed the bus company for the problems.

“I am very glad the school fought for us. I in no way, shape or form blame them. It was all on the bus company,” Baker said.

Angry parents, however, stood at the meeting to say the families should file “a class-action lawsuit,” and recommended no one accept the reimbursements offered. There were no specifics offered on who would be the target of the lawsuit, and it was not clear if the idea would move forward.

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 12:32 AM with the headline "Seniors’ wild ride to Disneyland: Texting driver, smelly bus and more."