HOUSTON – His name is Isaac.
He is a happy, creative 13-year-old boy who loves to draw science-fiction heroes and monsters. He loves to create movies on the computer and loves to build things.
Isaac is just like any other 13-year-old boy except for two things.
No. 1: He is autistic.
“Isaac is autistic. He has trouble communicating and he sometimes has emotional outbreaks,” his mother, Mary Lou Herrera, said.
No. 2: Unlike other boys, Isaac hasn’t been able to get a bus ride to Patrick Henry Junior High School within the Houston Independent School District system since school started, even though he has been attending
HISD schools for years.
“So who dropped the ball, what is going on here?” Isaac’s mom wants to know.
To make matters worse, Isaac’s mom is blind.
She can’t possibly drive him to school and she can’t walk him to school.
After more than 2 1/2 months with no bus transportation, Mary Lou called Spencer Solves It.
“I guess I figured the more we tried to get him to school, the less they were trying to get him a ride,” Mary Lou said.
That’s when we at Spencer Solves It began calling HISD to find out what went wrong, but more important, to get Isaac back on that bus.
After several calls to the media relations department at HISD, there it was, as big as life -- Isaac’s bus, arriving at Isaac’s house on time and ready to take him to school.
For Isaac’s mother, it was a massive relief.
“I’m just so glad that he’s finally, finally on the bus. Thank you so much for your help,” Mary Lou said.
So what went wrong?
For weeks, Channel 2 Investigates has been asking HISD officials for an interview to get to the bottom of what happened.
Several different times we were promised an interview with several different people, but in the end, we were told there would be no interview.
Instead we received a written statement from the district:
“HISD is looking into why transportation did not continue for the student at the beginning of the school year. We regret that this lapse occurred and assure it was unintentional. Right now, our focus is working with the family to address this concern.”
If you would like help with a problem you can’t possibly solve on your own, you can contact us at 713-223-TIPS or email us at solvesit@click2houston.com.