High schools forced to cancel alternate plans to get kids to school

Thousands of Ottawa high school students are scrambling to make alternate plans to get to school Wednesday after a back-up plan to use yellow school buses in the event of an OC Transpo strike fell apart when school boards weren't assured the transit union would not protest their contingency plan.

"Implementation of our contingency plan depends on getting assurances from the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU Local 279) that there will not be picketing or disruptions at our schools, bus pick up and bus drop off locations impeding the safe arrival and departure of any yellow school bus. We have not been able to get assurances that there will not be picketing or interference," read a letter sent home with students of the Ottawa Catholic School Board.

• Read the entire letter

It's a situation facing all high schools in the capital: "They could if they wanted, picket our bus operators at their sites, which would slow down the entire transportation system," said Mike Carson of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

Students who currently use yellow school buses to get to class won't be affected by the strike. But 5,000 students with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, 3,500 students with the Catholic board and several hundred more with the city's two French boards will need to find an alternate way to get to school.

• How will the strike affect you? Have your say.

"I have track and I have to bus to Orleans, so I don't know what I'm going to do about that," said Grade 10 student Devyani Biswal.

"The strike is stupid, why can't they get paid normally? It's affecting us all, all students using OC (Transpo) to get to school," added Ali Acar, a Grade nine student.

Others, who don't have an alternative way to get to school, say an OC Transpo strike will force them to stay home.

"I live far, so I'm not sure how else I'm going to get here," said Joel Thompson, a Grade 10 student.

The transit union has set a strike deadline of midnight. If no deal is reached, more than 2,100 OC Transpo bus drivers, dispatchers and maintenance staff are prepared to walk off the job.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr

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  Thousands of Ottawa high school students who rely on OC Transpo are scrambling to find an alternate way to get to school if transit workers walk off the job, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008.