JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A concerned father says his 11-year-old diabetic son was left behind at his school bus stop on just the second day of school Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n
Carl Futch says he and his son Theodore walked 20 minutes to his bus stop on the Southside and got there 15 minutes early.<\/p>\n
But Futch said as the approached, the bus was already there and took off as his son ran to catch it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey let the other kids on the bus, shut the door and drove off with Mr. Theo here running after them,\u201d said Futch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just rude. I didn\u2019t like it,\u201d said Theodore.<\/p>\n
Futch argued the situation could have quickly turned into a medical emergency for his son, who has Type I Diabetes and needs medicine every three hours.<\/p>\n
Futch said his son is not allowed to carry the medicine himself at school.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n By the time the two made it back to the extended stay where they\u2019re currently living, Futch said Theodore\u2019s blood sugar had risen above 300.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily, I was here to make sure to get him back and everything. But if I hadn\u2019t have been here he would have been stuck outside in the heat until 10 a.m. when they open up the front desk here,\u201d said Futch. \u201dAnd then he could have got his shot, but by then it would have been over 400.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n When Futch contacted his son\u2019s school, Southside Middle, he said he was told students need to arrive at their bus stops 30 minutes early, but district policy only recommends arriving 10 minutes early<\/a>.<\/p>\n When asked why the bus would take off as Theodore was walking up, the district noted bus drivers must check all mirrors before moving the vehicle.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile it may appear that a driver looked directly at a student, factors such as sight lines, positioning, and visibility can affect what is visible from the driver\u2019s seat,\u201d said a district spokesperson in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n The district said it and Durham School Services is working to gather facts as it reviews the incident.<\/p>\n Durham School Services also sent a statement saying the company understands Futch\u2019s concerns and is currently looking into the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cOur team has been committed to preparing for this first week of school and we will continue to make improvements as we hear of any bus stop issues,\u201d said a Durham spokesperson in the statement. \u201cThe safety and well-being of our students are important to us, and we are taking this situation seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Futch said he just wants to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n \u201cA missing-the-bus can quickly escalate into a life-threatening situation for him,\u201d said Futch.<\/p>\n The family told us they\u2019re looking into possible enrolling Theodore in virtual school, but even that option is not ideal, as their son would have to be fully responsible for his own medical needs while his parents are at work during the school day.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A concerned father says his 11-year-old diabetic son was left behind at his school bus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,149807,98762,130412,969,116,118,117,971,970,634,149809,149806,95119,149808],"class_list":["post-370123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-carl_futch","tag-durham_school_services","tag-futch","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_stoan","tag-local","tag-southside_middle","tag-stow","tag-theo","tag-theodore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}