Parents Say They' Spotted Poisonous Snakes Nearby

LOCUST GROVE, Ga. - Parents and residents in a Locust Grove neighborhood say the bus stop where their children wait earlier in the morning to be picked up isn't safe.

Janay Pettigrew worries each morning when her second-grade niece heads to the bus stop on their street. It's near a wooded area, down this hill and away from most of the houses.

"There is no light down there," said Pettigrew, "it's pitch black dark."

Pettigrew says she's also spotted poisonous snakes like this one several days ago. She'd like the Henry County School District to move the bus stop. "I'm trying my best to get safety for my niece and for all the other little kids that ride the bus down there," she said.

Other frustrated neighbors wonder why, if the bus has to turn around on their cul-de-sac every day, it doesn't just stop closer to their houses? "The bus driver literally passes by the majority of the children who live here and we have to walk all the way down to the area where...the school system wants us to meet them," said Wendy Smith, another parent on the block.

The Henry County School district explained why the bus stop is in its current location. "We try to find a centralized pickup and drop off point that is going to be able to service the most students, especially in high-density areas," said Henry County School District spokesman JD Hardin.

"We've taken the concerns that we've seen from this instance and other instances and we share those with our transportation department," said Hardin, "and they look into it too to see if there's any other alternatives and some situations there’s just no other alternative."

But neighbors like Wendy Smith say moving the stop up the hill, away from the woods and closer to houses, would make early mornings easier for parents and safer for kids.

"And it’s really hard on us, it really is," said Smith, "and we just need a little help."