She sees a narrow area to walk by the side of the road. Too narrow, she believes, and that’s before snowbanks have started to pile up.

She sees knee-high grass, adding to the difficulty in maneuvering safely down the street in Epsom. And cars, she thinks, routinely break the speed limit of 30 miles-per-hour as they motor past Abbigail Teachout and her two young daughters on their way to the bus stop.

“I’m trying to get a safe bus stop,” Teachout said. “We live on a busy street. There are no sidewalks.”

Teachout is worried that her two grade-school children simply do not have adequate room to walk to their bus stop, three-tenths of a mile away. She did her homework, checking if there’s a policy in place that shows her argument – that New Rye Road is dangerous to walk alongside for her daughters and in fact for anyone, really – has merit.

She referred to New Hampshire law that protects her children, ages 5 and 12, from harm. RSA 189:8 reads, “School districts shall assure that pupils shall not be subject to unsafe conditions while walking the required distance to a school bus stop and that the school bus stop is established in a safe location.”

Perhaps gauging danger is subjective, but Teachout says simply look at the area in question. A no-brainer, she says.

“I’m disappointed with how it was handled,” Teachout said. “One-line responses. My will to fight has dwindled often.”

Teachout has a folder stuffed with email correspondences, beginning in February of 2022, to and from school and transportation officials. Her tone moves from polite and hopeful to, gradually, impatient and frustrated. “All this time and we’re still sitting here,” she said.

Last year, the bus stop was the New Rye Union Congregational Church. Teachout sought a stop in front of her long driveway, worried about the 7/10-of-a-mile walk to the church, with no sidewalks.

Her initial request was rejected by the school board last summer. No reason was given. Unwilling to allow her children to walk that far on a strip of road she deemed too dangerous, Teachout’s parents drove from Manchester to drive her older daughter, Piper, to Epsom Central School. Younger Chloe was too young to attend school last year but this year she’s a student at the Central School.

Teachout’s partner, Alan LeFleur, picked up Piper during the last school year from the home of a neighbor who agreed to allow Piper to wait there, shortening the ride back to the house.

A compromise was reached last April, when officials moved the bus stop closer to their house at the corner of Wing and New Rye roads.

But a three-tenths-of-a-mile walk with no sidewalk hardly solved the problem. So these days, with 5-year-old Chloe joining 12-year-old Piper, LeFleur has been driving the children to school. He’s caring for an elderly family member, though, and if she has a doctor’s appointment, he drives her. The kids walk to the stop at Wing Street.

Coincidentally, Teachout drives a school bus for another district, meaning her work hours conflict with the pick-up and drop-off times for her own children.

That can cause a problem. In one letter written by Teachout to the school three weeks ago, she said, “Piper will be out sick today. As a result, Chloe will have to miss school because she can not walk all the way to and from the bus stop by herself. This road is just too dangerous and Chloe is just five years old.”

The saga continues. Teachout missed the deadline to file her second appeal after giving birth to another daughter. She says the messages in her file, to and from officials have left her feeling like her concerns are not being taken seriously.

Superintendent Jack Finley only recently joined the dialogue after starting his new role as superintendent this year, and Teachout said she’s been encouraged by his input thus far, raising her hopes that the bus will one day stop at the foot of her driveway.

Finley responded to questions through email and said he did in fact “physically observe the location of the request and traveled the route to be able to fully understand the reason for the change. I have also contacted the Chief of the Epsom Police Department for a greater understanding of the traffic in the Epsom community.”

Finley stopped short of offering an opinion on the level of danger on the road, or where the process stands.

“At the moment,” Finley wrote, “I am unable to comment as the process is ongoing.”

Meanwhile, Teachout has asked the Epsom Police Department for data that might bolster her cause. Six accidents were reported New Rye Road since 2019 and the average speed of drivers who received a ticket was 46 miles per hour.

Epsom Police Chief Brian Michael said the issue should be addressed by the school board and the bus company. He also said he contacted the state one month ago and has yet to receive an answer to his inquiry.

“I’m looking for a traffic count,” Michael said. “How many cars go by, what time, average speed.”

Michael declined to say if he believed Teachout had a right to be worried. “I would not take a position on that,” he said. “It’s not a police issue.”

Michael said Teachout should be prepared to accept an answer she might not like about average speeds on the road once more traffic data becomes available.

“It could help her or hurt her,” the chief said. “If the speed limit is 30 and the average speed is 29, that might not help.”

But Teachout countered by saying speed is just one component here, and it’s not the biggest cause for concern.

“It’s not the distance,” she said. “The kids can walk. They’re fully capable. They’re active children. There’s just nowhere to walk.”

She’s vowed to fight on and is seeking legal options. She never figured the procedure would drag on for an issue that she sees as black and white.

“I never imagined that getting a bus stop could be so difficult,” Teachout said. “It’s really too bad that it’s come to this.”