INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
TSA: Industry Must Remain Vigilant Against Terrorism William Arrington, GM of TSA’s Office of Highway and Motor Carrier,
told School Transportation News last month on the heels of Osama bin Laden’s death that programs like First Observer and the Intermodal Secu- rity Training and Exercise Program (I-STEP) continue to be valuable tools for the student transportation industry to utilize when reporting, planning or responding to criminal or terrorist activity. Bin Laden was killed by a team of U.S. Navy Seals and special ops during a raid on a compound in Pakistan on May 1. While TSA was continuing to work with central intelligence, Arrington add-
ed that there were no indicators of increased terrorist activity domestically in response to bin Laden’s death. But he reminded of the need to remain vigilant, especially for school bus drivers on routes every day. Still, world-wide security alerts were put into place at this report. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued a statement that the U.S. remained at a “heightened state
of vigilance” as of the first week of May. She added that DHS is not “fixated on one individual, and we remain completely focused on protecting our nation against violent extremism of all kinds.” Meanwhile, Arrington was scheduled to present a workshop next month at the STN EXPO that not only updates attendees on First
Observer and I-STEP but that also discusses TSA’s efforts at formalizing school bus security action items that were adopted last May by the National Congress on School Transportation.
BULLYING BEGINS AT HOME, REPORT SAYS Te Centers for Disease Control teamed with
the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to look at data gathered across a state that has been thrust into the bullying spotlight, and a state that responded with one of the more strict anti- bullying laws nationwide. Both 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of South Hadley in 2010 and 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover of Springfield in 2009 committed suicide after repeated episodes of be- ing bullied. In mid-April in rural Minnesota, two best friends followed though with a suicide pact, both victims of bullying at school. The issue has become the rallying cry for
parents and educators alike, with a number of different studies on the subject being published in the past year. The most recent, “Bullying Among Middle
School and High School
Students — Massachusetts, 2009,” reports that 30 percent of high school and 40 percent of
middle school students in Massachusetts admitted to being involved in or affected by bullying. One possible link suggested by the CDC is violence in the home. According to the study, 13.6 percent of middle school victims and
19.4 percent of bullies reported being “physically hurt by a family member in past 12 months.” Of the high school students polled, 12.7 percent of victims and 13.6 percent of bullies reported the same. Te report also suggested links between alcohol and drug use and needing to talk to someone other than family members about
their feelings or problems. Meanwhile, bullying training is expected sometime this year from the U.S. Department of Education and NAPT for school bus drivers, often the first and last school employees to see student bus riders in the morning and evening.
14 School Transportation News Magazine June 2011
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