{"id":416001,"date":"2026-05-07T09:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/416001\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:32:09","slug":"grandmothers-anger-after-buses-refuse-student-who-forgot-wallet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/416001\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandmother\u2019s anger after buses refuse student who forgot wallet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd the driver just would not give her any assistance or consider anything else but put her off the bus, so she\u2019s stranded there on the footpath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genet said the same thing happened when the student waited for another bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taught our children that they can trust adults and that good adults will help them … the driver would not have a bar of it and told her to get off the bus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The grandmother said she was \u201creally angry and upset\u201d and had lodged a complaint with Auckland Transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, she\u2019s an 11-year-old child, she\u2019s trying to get up to school on time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Genet said the walk to school from the bus stop would have been an hour or more, and she had no car because it was being used by the girl\u2019s mother for work.<\/p>\n

She questioned why adults who refuse to pay a fare are allowed on by drivers with no intervention, but compassion could not be shown for her granddaughter being honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yeah, it just leaves me really frustrated as someone who uses public transport all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

RNZ has previously reported operators have been told to let people ride for free if intervening would cause a safety issue.<\/p>\n

Genet said she was speaking out in the hope the same thing did not happen to other students.<\/p>\n

She said her granddaughter was upset, traumatised and \u201cjust basically left on the footpath in tears\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like she was trying to get a free ride to the inner city or anything,\u201d Genet said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Auckland Transport said it recognised how important it is for students to be able to use public transport safely.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we expect school students to pay the relevant child or student fare when they use public transport, our clear expectation is that our public transport operators should not be leaving children behind<\/a>, regardless of whether they are wearing a school uniform or not,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

AT said it had contacted the bus company to make sure bus drivers were aware of that expectation.<\/p>\n

Bus company Kinetic said it was looking into what happened and did not have anything further to add.<\/p>\n

Megan West, from the advocacy and support trust Child Matters, said it\u2019s challenging for a young person and their family when an incident like this occurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny action taken by any employee needs to be in the best interests of children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd sometimes that\u2019s a judgment, you need to make that judgment in the time about what is in the best interests of this child or this young person.\u201d<\/p>\n

West said it was also a good time to see what policies and processes there were.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s where really clear procedures can become incredibly important because it gives a clear guideline to bus drivers or employees around what actions to take, and also if employees are unsure what to do it can give really good guidelines about who to contact or who to consult with if they need some further advice about what to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a community we all have a responsibility to do what we can to ensure that children are protected, and children are safe, and children are feeling like they can go about their day-to-day activities feeling safe … making decisions that are in the best interests of children and young people at that time really trumps everything else,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s always disappointing when children and young people are feeling unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd the driver just would not give her any assistance or consider anything else but put her off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,25348,52056,118173,181877,166752,42,43,76884,9631,40,38,41,39,1347,1299,6038],"class_list":["post-416001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-anger","tag-baker","tag-buses","tag-forgot","tag-grandmothers","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-refuse","tag-student","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wallet","tag-who","tag-wilson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}