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Drivers Can Play a Key Role in Child Safety Duane L. Dobbert, Ph.D, FACFE, shared information on how school bus drivers can take an active role in
identifying and reporting potential child abuse cases as well as predators during an hourlong STN Webinar in August. Dobbert, author of numerous publications and training modules including “School Bus Drivers: Te First Line of Defense Against Sexual Predators,” presented the topic “School Bus Drivers: Ensuring Total Child Safety.” He said more than 100,000 children go missing or are exploited each year, and 200,000 children are abducted by strangers. Meanwhile, another 700,000 children are abused, neglected or sexually molested in their own families. “School transportation personnel are the ones who see the child first thing every day. Tey can see when a child is crying or looks hurt ... they can see the hand mark on their face and ask what happened,” he said.
“Tey can see when (children) are acting out their aggression from their abuse.” More than 600,000 people are listed on the national sex offender registry yet, Dobbert noted, this total doesn’t include sex
offenders who have not been arrested or those charged with a sex crime whose plea bargain kept their name off the registry. More on the presentation is available at
www.stnonline.com/go/836. Stay tuned for more webinars hosted by School Transportation News and access archived presentations 24/7 at
www.stnonline.com/webcasts.
A Different Approach to Loading and Unloading? As states and local districts continue to struggle with challenges presented by motorists
who illegally pass stopped school buses, a small town in Canada considered passing a bylaw that would ban drivers from using flashers and stop arms at bus stops to lessen frustrations by other motorists who can wait in traffic for 5 or 10 minutes. Te city of Wetaskiwin, Alberta, about 40 miles south of Edmonton, was seeking to join other provincial cities to prohibit the use of the equipment within city limits, though drivers would continue to operate as usual in rural areas and on highways. Rick Grebenstein, the provincial transportation manager at Alberta Education, said it’s not uncommon for
smaller towns in urban areas to ban the safety equipment from being used. Te rationale, he explained, is that there is far less traffic in these residential areas than in the bigger cities, and the buses travel at lower speeds. Additionally, students are dropped off on sidewalks. Read more at
www.stnonline.com/go/838.
Seat Belts, Seat Belts, Seat Belts As NHTSA prepares to enforce the updated FMVSS 222 on School Bus Occupant
Protection this month, and the requirement for lap/shoulder belts in small school buses takes effect, along with voluntary standards for the restraint systems in large buses, visit
www.stnonline.com/go/837 to review the history of seat belt development. Included are watershed events in U.S. school bus passenger safety over the past 80 years as well as background on how seat belts have evolved in school buses.
Stay Connected with STNSOCiAL What video systems do you use in your fleet of school buses? What states allow online
training for bus drivers? How can solar battery maintainers keep yellow buses charged and ready to go? Tese are just a few questions posed and some of the topics recently introduced by industry professionals who are members of
STNSOCiAL.com, a Web resource and social networking page developed by STN and partner Heavy Duty Bus Parts specifically for the student transportation industry. Share. Connect. Network.
8 School Transportation News Magazine October 2011
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