FIRST TAKE Thoughts on School Bus Safety Week WRITTEN BY RYAN GRAY|
RYAN@STNONLINE.COM A
s school districts and bus contractors around the country were busy juggling back-to- school duties last month, we asked the following question to readers: What plans
are you making for National School Bus Safety Week? Te third week of October is an annual rite of passage,
where student transporters gather for driver and employ- ee appreciation events. Tey often offer special training for bus riders and even solicit positive press with the local media. Creating a good buzz around yellow school buses is always a good thing. More often than not, however, many of our read- ers communicate to us that: 1) Tey look forward to celebrating good old SBSW this year; but, 2) they haven’t had time to start planning yet. It’s understandable, what with new routes, students
and parents to learn each and staying on top of training efforts. Inevitably, there is some challenge to be met head on, either the result of a new administration decision or parental requests. Plus, that dastardly driver shortage. Te first month or two for student transportation
departments can be quite harrowing. One transporta- tion administrator I spoke to referred to recently seeing dispatchers and routers dance to the tune of “organized chaos.”
Amid all the busy-ness, it’s important that industry
professionals take time out to remind themselves, teach- ers, administrators, students and parents that School Bus Safety Week plans are all too important to put off until tomorrow. For that day, we were sadly reminded of last month, might not come.
Te school bus family lost a dear member on Sept. 11, an especially sad day in our nation’s history now made even worse for Kari Chopper’s friends, co-workers and students at Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Tornton, Colorado. Chopper, a school bus driver with four years of experience, also left behind a husband, Joshua, four children and a grandson after crashing her bus into a concrete pillar at Denver International Airport. Te in- cident, which was still being investigated at this writing, occurred soon after she had picked up local high school football players and coaches returning from a game that Friday in California.
10 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2016 Just days earlier, on Sept. 7, a 12-year-old student in
Wisconsin walking home from his first day of school was struck and killed by a school bus while crossing the street. Meanwhile, two students in Austin, Texas, had just exited their buses when they were struck by illegally passing motorists—two separate incidents caught on the district’s stop-arm video and occurring only one day apart. One of the students was even in the crosswalk! Tankfully, both of those students walked away with minor bumps and bruises. Transporting students is a serious, life-or-death pro- fession. I can’t fathom the anxiety that employees must deal with on a daily basis. To further complicate matters, the pay for school bus drivers, attendants and other employees does not correspond with the number of their responsibilities. And they are subjected to public scrutiny that most others at the school district are not. For all the negative headlines we read on the wires
each week, I think the industry needs to remind its col- lective self of the far greater good that is being performed each and every school day. And there is no better time, or place, than to do that with celebrations, events and train- ing sessions during National School Bus Safety Week. In addition, at the request of the Child Safety Network, Congress proclaimed September as National School Bus Safety Month this year. It’s vital that student transporters take a breath and pat each other on the backs not just for a job well done, but also a job done superbly and safely. We hope you and your transportation family have fun later this month in celebrating this important fact and spreading the good news throughout your communities. And please send us your stories and photos! ●
Ryan Gray, Editor-in-Chief
CELEBRATING25YEARS
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