A picture of a student sitting on the floor of a moving school bus is going viral, and it’s upsetting a lot of parents.
NBC Charlotte confirmed the student in the photo kneeling on the floor of the bus is a student in the Fort Mill School District.
Parents told us this first week back to class, the buses have been overcrowded, leaving some students without a place to sit.
Susan Heffron was the mother who snapped the viral photo.
“My first reaction was, oh my gosh, this can’t be safe,” said Heffron.
Heffron said she took the picture in the middle of morning rush hour while traveling down Highway 160, one of Fort Mill’s busiest roads.
“The seats were full then. I noticed someone sitting in the middle in the aisle on the ground,” said Heffron. “It did look like a lot of kids were on the bus. So I took a picture for documentation.”
Joe Burke, a spokesperson for Fort Mill Schools confirmed the bus in the picture belongs to the district.
“Based on the number of the back, it is one of our buses,” said Burke.
Since the start of the school year, Burke said there have been issues with overcrowding on buses, mainly due to the heightened growth in Fort Mill.
Burke said he cannot confirm if overcrowding is the reason the student was kneeling on the floor. However, he said the district is taking steps to make sure children are being transported safely.
“We’re looking at our routing and started making adjustments to our routes,” said Burke. “We’re shifting stops to one bus route to another.”
Burke said the issue should be fixed in the coming weeks.