One of the issues that I have been fighting about for years has been for seat belts on the school buses used in my local public school district. It is insane to allow kids to be driven around in school buses that don't have seat belts.
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Every year, I see stories in the news about kids being maimed or killed in simple school bus accidents, such as when the bus bumps into something, someone bangs into the bus or the bus rolls over after inadvertently driving into a ditch on the side of the road. If only the kids had been belted into their seats, they would have walked away from the accident, unscathed. Instead, the kids are catapulted about the bus, causing horrific injuries, or ejected through a window, only to have the bus roll over on top of them and kill them.
The slaughter is so stupid and needless. The only reason that it goes on is that Republicans are too cheap to require that the money be spent for seat belts. School officials certainly make sure that there are seat belts in the cars that they use when traveling on school business, but for the kids? Screw them. Just save a pitiable few dollars for the bus companies or the homeowners who pay the property taxes that support the schools.
Recently, the issue came up again. My daughter, Dawn, is in Second Grade at the local public school here in Buffalo Grove, Illinois (northwest suburban Chicago). Her class is scheduled to go on a field trip later this month. As usual, Dawn's participation is in jeopardy because the school bus that has been hired by her teacher does not have seat belts. I will not permit her to travel on an unsafe school bus and Dawn, herself, is unwilling to ride on a school bus without seat belts.
Dawn's teacher referred me to the school bus company for information about why the hired school bus does not have seat belts. The bus company's charter administrator told me that the reason Dawn's hired bus does not have seat belts is that my local school district does not require seat belts.
The administrator also stated that the rental of school buses with seat belts was available, and available at the very same price of $185.08 for the day. All we would have to do is ask and we could have a school bus with seat belts.
I asked how that could be. The administrator said that there are two nearby school districts which both require that their school buses have seat belts, so the bus company provides those districts with school buses that have seat belts. My district, on the other hand, has no such requirement, so we get school buses without seat belts.
The company's school buses with seat belts are used before and after school by the students from those other two districts. However, they are not used during the day, so the sit, unused, in the bus company's parking lot during the day. If we want to use one for the field trip, we are welcome to do so. All we have to do is ask.
Today, I will urge the principal of Dawn's public school to direct that the bus for Dawn's field trip be switched to one with seat belts. I will also urge the principal to establish a policy requiring that all field trips made from Dawn's school be made on school buses that have seat belts, from now on.
Next week, I will attend the school board meeting to again ask that the district establish a mandatory seat belt policy for all school buses that are used anywhere in the school district. Now that there is no longer any additional cost for buses with seat belts, at least for field trips in my school district, there better not be any more excuses for saying, "No," to my request that school buses used for field trips have seat belts.
I'll let you know what they say.
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
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Telephone: (847) 870-0700
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E-mail: rob followed by the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com