and school districts are embracing technology to catch perpetrators in the act. North Carolina, for example, performed its first camera pilot project in the late 1990s. Derek Graham said while the technol- ogy is more advance now, the key is to allocate staff resources to ensure stop-arm video camera program is a success. “What you hope is that somebody will grab a hold of an idea
that they can do in their own state,” he added. “It also depends on the laws. North Carolina has to ID drivers, so some technol- ogy can’t be used because they stop at the license plate, which is what most companies seem to be focusing on. Every state has their own flavor of what it takes to prosecute.” Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel spoke on Nathan’s Law
he introduced and was signed into law last year in response to a 5-year-old boy who was killed on Dec. 11, 2009, by a motorist who had illegally passed a school bus. Graham said the entire confer- ence was struck by Sen. McDaniel’s passion as he shared insights into how the legislation came about and progressed through the legislature. Mississippi delegates wore “Nathan’s Law” T-shirts. “He talked about the frustration of introducing the bill after
the fatality and seeing it get stonewalled in committee for po- litical reasons and nothing to do with child safety. He described how he worked through the legislature based on the want and need to do something. He spoke with conviction,” said Graham. Attendees also learned about the way things work in the real world of politics. Graham explained that legislation doesn’t al-
ways move fast, or slow, in proportion to its relative value. “Tis law took time, but at the very least it called attention to the
issue,” he added. “Did it fix everything? No. But the biggest thing is to get people to think more when driving around school bus.” Other topics covered included driver management (initial hiring
and continuous monitoring), special needs compliance, student behavior management and ASBC Champions and “Love the Bus” programs. William Arrington of the TSA and Larry Minor of the FMCSA spoke about the changes with CDL regulations. David Es- quith, director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students, presented a national perspective of school bullying, delivering the simple message that children are unable to learn unless they feel safe, and shared the federal anti-bullying website
www.stopbullying.gov. He said all but nine states cur- rently have both a law and policy school bullying. Eight other states have an anti-bullying law, and Montana is the only state with only a policy on how schools are to respond to and report incidents. Meanwhile, Florida’s Hood advised attendees how to keep their
transportation systems out of the newspaper headlines. Far too many parents and other taxpayers have a negative perception of schools and the government, he told attendees, and exacerbating the problem are instant updates via social networking sites of any “incident” that occurs involving a school bus. Te 63rd annual Southeastern States Pupil Transportation Conference is scheduled for next July in Mobile, Ala. ■
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www.stnonline.com 27
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