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Norfolk parents petition for bus route following after-school fight on walk home

Parents in the Young Terrace community say Norfolk Public Schools should offer a direct bus route to and from Ruffner Academy

NORFOLK, Va. (WVEC) — Parents in the Young Terrace community are renewing a petition to the School Board of the City of Norfolk to start a school bus route to Ruffner Academy.

Norfolk Public Schools said the Young Terrace area is within the 'non-transportation zone' for Ruffner Academy. The school system added there are crossing guards at four different stops along the mile-long walk from Ruffner Academy to Young Terrace.

Parents said they're concerned about the safety of their children. In addition to students needing to cross multiple eight-lane streets in Tidewater Drive and Brambleton Avenue, parents said a student was beaten up on the walk home last week and was taken to the hospital.

Tanya Brown, a parent of a Ruffner Academy student, said she normally picks her daughter up from school to avoid any after-school 'terror.'

"The fights, the trouble, the danger, the traffic, all of it," Brown said.

Brown and more than 1,300 other people have signed a petition to ask Norfolk Public Schools for a bus route servicing the Young Terrace area. She said every parent would sign that petition if they knew about it.

"The children shouldn't have to be scared when they're walking home," she said. "It would relieve my mind to know that my child made it to school and home and not have to worry about the time in between."

13News Now is awaiting a response from Norfolk Public Schools regarding why Young Terrace is a non-transportation zone for students at Ruffner Academy.

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