CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (May 19) — Two months after a school bus crash on Highway 70 killed two Kenwood Middle School students and injured dozens more, families of those on the bus came before the Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board on May 19 with grievances about lack of communication and transparency.
Several speakers criticized the district’s response to the March 27 crash, which occurred between Cedar Grove and Huntingdon as the bus carried students to a STEM competition in Jackson.
Xaviel Lugo, whose daughter was injured in the crash and who provided dashcam footage showing the bus crossing the centerline, told the board the district had failed families from the start.
“From the beginning, communication with affected family members were inaccurate,” he said. “The day of the crash, CMCSS publicly stated that all parents had been notified. That statement was false.”
Lugo said many parents learned about the crash “through calls from strangers, calls from distraught kids, social media and their own desperate efforts.”
He also took issue with how the district handled testing accommodations in the weeks that followed, saying affected families were “met with excuses and a pass the buck attitude.”
He also brought up the $700,000 emergency fund set aside for the 24 students involved. That money is to be split among all the victims.
“That doesn’t even amount to $30,000 per student,” he said. “That alone doesn’t even cover the life flight that my daughter had to take. That bill alone was $100,000.”
Fifty-three days after the crash, he said, not one affected family had received assistance for emergency medical care.
“You can continue choosing silence, complacency and damage control,” he told the board. “Or you can choose accountability, transparency and meaningful action.”
Diana McClain, whose 13-year-old grandson was on the bus, described calling the school in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
“The front office hung up on me. Eight times,” she said. “Every other time she told me that I was playing a sick prank.”
McClain said she was only able to reach the principal after pleading with the school nurse.
“It has been so evident to me that the school system did not have an emergency plan in place,” she said. “I hope in the wake of this, you all sit down and create something so no other parent has to feel shut out.”
“Y’all are a failure,” she said at the close of her remarks, followed by applause from those in attendance.
Adam Ellithorpe, father of a Montgomery Central High School senior, gave his own criticism of the board’s response.
“The response from leadership has left many families feeling frustrated, unheard and deeply concerned,” he said. “What has disturbed this community almost as much as the incidents themselves has been the silence that has followed.”
He said the board has an obligation to the taxpayers who fund it.
“This board was not elected to protect political interests, reputations or internal relationships,” Ellithorpe said. “You were elected to serve students, families, teachers and taxpayers.”
Ashley Ellithorpe, speaking in place of another community member who yielded her time, echoed those concerns.
“Healing cannot happen without accountability,” she said. “Trust cannot be restored without action.”
The board did not publicly respond to the comments during the meeting. Due to pending litigation and active state and federal investigations, CMCSS has said it cannot comment further on the crash.
The NTSB investigation, conducted alongside the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, remains ongoing. A full investigation could take 12 to 24 months. Bus driver Sabrina Ducksworth remains on administrative leave and has not been charged.