Call Kurtis: Disneyland disaster at Tokay High School
LODI — The buses were a no-show for a Disney graduation trip, so some upset Lodi grads called on Kurtis to investigate.
They say they've been deprived of the full experience and want refunds.
Alice Hewitt provided CBS13 a TikTok of her and 149 other classmates waiting in the parking lot of Tokay High School, hours after they were supposed to be off to Disneyland.
"The bus company decided to just not show up and take us," she said.
Eventually, after hours of waiting, Alice said that school buses eventually showed up, bringing her and 149 other grads to Anaheim. But she said they arrived six hours late, depriving them of the full $350 experience.
"We paid for the park hopper tickets so that we could go into Disneyland, but we didn't get to use it at all," she said.
And after California Adventure closed, she said that bus driver rules kept them from getting back on and heading home to Lodi, forcing many of them to sleep on the concrete.
"It was really heartbreaking to me that there was 150 students there who had paid a significant amount of money and a lot of them had never even been to Disneyland before," Alice's mom, Michelle, told CBS13.
Lodi Unified acknowledged there were "unexpected circumstances" with the private bus company, but should students get their money back?
The district said "the delay was disappointing for our students" and said the grads are getting a refund of $158 per ticket.
But that still won't make up for the lost experience.
"I was really disappointed," Alice said. "I was really looking forward to spending the whole day with my friends, and instead, we all sat on a hot, crowded school bus for about nine hours," Alice said.
Lodi Unified wouldn't tell CBS13 how they came to the figure for the refunds. The station also reached out to the bus company, MGM Transportation, about what went wrong and did not hear back.
