Fridley bus company's performance has parents dismayed

A school bus driver left a sleeping 4-year-old Brooklyn Park boy on a bus in January while she ran errands. When she found him, she didn't immediately return him to the school or report what had happened.

At the time of the 2013 incident, the driver was employed by Metropolitan Transportation Network Inc. — the same company involved in a recent incident where a lost bus driver triggered a State Patrol search.

Records show the Fridley company has been the subject of several parent complaints to schools, police agencies and the state Department of Education. It's also being sued by the mother of the Brooklyn Park boy, who says he continues to have nightmares about being left on the bus for three hours.

The company's owner would not comment on the lawsuit, but denied that bus drivers frequently have run late or gotten lost. "Our safety standards are very high," Tashitaa Tufaa said.

But parents say it wasn't the first time one of the company's drivers had gotten lost with students on board.

Earlier this year, Athlos Leadership Academy parents called Brooklyn Park police when three buses went missing for more than three hours on the first day of school.

"There were kindergartners on these buses and nobody knew where they were," parent Jeremy Uzzell said.

Complaints about student ­maltreatment on buses are investigated by the state Department of Education. The Department of Public Safety inspects buses. Documents on file with that agency show that Metropolitan Transportation Network buses were inspected more than 100 times last year, and most passed.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which oversees large-vehicle safety, said it has conducted an audit of the company, but its findings weren't immediately available.

Tufaa started Metropolitan Transportation more than 10 years ago with just a taxi and his wife's minivan. By 2012, he had built it into a company with more than 200 employees, nearly 300 buses and more than $12 million in revenue. He was recognized as 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Metropolitan Economic Development Association.

His firm has been awarded contracts with several metro-area schools, and has carved out a niche by taking on longer, more challenging routes. For example, it serves a number of charter schools that enroll students from across the metro area. It also contracts with school districts to transport special education students and students who open-enroll outside of their home district. "Somebody has to transport the neglected child," Tufaa said.

A Metropolitan Transportation Network bus was transporting students from Brooklyn Center to FAIR School in Crystal a week and a half ago when its driver, who was in his second day on the route, mistakenly went off course. Once bus dispatchers detected a problem, they notified the State Patrol. The bus was found a short time later.

Uzell said when his son's bus didn't drop him off at home at 3:30 p.m. on the first day of school, he and his wife called the school and then the bus dispatcher in Fridley. "I sat on hold for 15 minutes. Finally I got ahold of somebody," Uzzell said. "She said, 'Call back in 15 minutes if it doesn't show up.' They never answered their phones after that."

Brooklyn Park police officers also were unable to reach the bus dispatcher and were contacting Fridley police to go to the company's headquarters when the bus showed up back at school, said Brooklyn Park Deputy Chief Mark Bruley.

Uzzell said many of the younger children who disembarked there after 6 p.m. were panicked, crying and sweating after their nearly three-hour ordeal. He said his son, one of the oldest children on the missing buses, was so distraught that he vomited.

Tufaa disputed parents' claim that any buses were more than 2½ hours late. He said some buses were late that day because the company has a policy of not dropping off a young child if no adult is at the stop. On that day, he said, a parent was late picking up a child, which disrupted the entire route.

Tanya Simons' kindergartner spent more than two hours on a lost Metropolitan Transportation Network Inc. bus on Oct. 24. Her daughter, who attends Parnassus Preparatory School in Osseo, usually arrives at her Brooklyn Park home by 4:25 p.m. "She did not get home until just after 6 p.m. that day," Simons said. "It was way beyond unreasonable."

She later learned a substitute driver was handling the route. "The bus driver was lost," Simons said. "Kids were helping the bus driver."

Tufaa, however, said the bus arrived closer to 4:49 p.m. that day. He blamed the delay on a student who did not come to the school bus stop on time.

On Jan. 29, 2013, a 4-year-old boy enrolled in a half-day preschool program in the Osseo district was picked up by a driver for Metropolitan Transportation Network. After she dropped the children off at Fair Oaks Elementary that morning, the driver, Linda Dixon, did not notice that the boy was still on the bus, according to a lawsuit filed in March.

A video camera on the bus showed that the boy woke up while Dixon was inside Target and started to cry for his mother. The camera then shuts off. The boy said Dixon got angry when she discovered he was there and hit him, according to the lawsuit.

The camera begins recording again after Dixon returns.

The boy was traumatized by the three-hour ordeal, according to the lawsuit.

It was unclear if Dixon still works for the company. Tufaa said she "does not drive any routes for us" and declined to discuss the issue further.

Osseo school officials called the incident "unacceptable" and noted the company no longer has a contract with the district.

Robbinsdale school officials confirmed this week that Metropolitan Transportation Network no longer works for them, either. "It just wasn't a good fit," said Latisha Gray, a district spokeswoman.