Last Wednesday, my daughter Dawn's second grade class went on a field trip to the Cernan Space Center at Triton College. A week before the trip, I asked Dawn's teacher if the school bus would have seat belts. She said, "No," but I was given the telephone number of the school bus company, Laidlaw Educational Services, and told that I was welcome to call the bus company to discuss the matter. I did.
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Cheryl, the charter coordinator at the local Laidlaw facility, said that the reason the school bus for my daughter's trip didn't have seat belts was that my School District didn't require them. Laidlaw provides the neighboring Deerfield and Aptakisic school districts with seat belts because those districts do require them, but since my district doesn't require them, we wouldn't be getting a school bus with seat belts. However, since the school buses with seat belts sit unused in the lot all day, except for transporting the Deerfield and Aptakisic kids to and from school in the morning and afternoon, my daughter's school was welcome to use one of the seat belt buses for their mid-day field trip. All they would have to do is ask for one.
I asked how much we were paying for the the school bus without seat belts. The answer was $185.08. That figure amounted to about three dollars per kid for a round trip of about fifty miles and the use of the bus and driver for about five hours.
I then asked how much more it would cost for the seat belt-equipped school bus. Cheryl responded, "Same price. Would you like me to switch the bus to one equipped with seat belts?" I said that I would like that very much, but that I did not have the authority to order the switch. I told Cheryl that I would contact the school and that someone would get back to her within a day or two.
I next contacted the principal at Dawn's school. I explained that I understood that there may, at one time, have been a concern about money, about keeping the price of the charter as low as possible, but Laidlaw was now offering seat belt buses at the same price as the less safe buses. Same price, safer bus. I urged the principal to request that the school bus for Dawn's field trip be switched to a seat belt bus, and that all future field trips be made only on school buses with seat belts.
The principal said that all school buses for field trips are ordered by the individual teacher whose class is going on a field trip, but that he thought I had come up with a fabulous plan. The principal directed Dawn's teacher to switch the buses. He also issued the following statement in his weekly "Building Report" newsletter sent to all teachers:
"A reminder following our building meeting on Thursday. It is now our school policy when ordering busses for field trips, to request that they be equipped with seat belts. Laidlaw will comply with your request at no cost differential and if the busses are available. We will also need to instruct students to use the seat belts if our busses are so equipped.
"We are seeking a safer environment for our students. Please make sure that these requests become second nature."
Finally! After pursuing this issue for fourteen years, ever since my son was in kindergarten, a child of mine would be able to go on field trips with classmates.
I had always refused to sign the waiver permitting my children to ride on school buses without seat belts because the transportation being provided is not safe. They know that it's not safe. That's why they make you sign the waiver. The waiver says that you waive your right to sue for harm that may come to your kid if your kid gets hurt when the bus crashes. If the school bus had seat belts, I wouldn't need to worry about my kid getting hurt if the school bus crashed.
Now, at least at my daughter's school, the principal had ended the reckless, stupid practice of shipping kids on school buses without seat belts.
Or so I thought.
As soon as the school district superintendent heard about the change in policy at Dawn's school, he revoked the policy. I asked him why. He said that he feared that other schools in the district would hear about it and do the same thing.
Soon, everybody in the community would be singing the praises of Rob Sherman, yet again, about how I had pulled off yet another victory for the person without clout, the powerless, the little guy or, in this case, all the little guys and gals who attend elementary school in Buffalo Grove.
The mighty superintendent of the school district decided, however, that this could not be allowed to take place.
Dawn was not about to be pushed around by this guy. She decided to take matters into her own hands by personally bringing the matter up with the school board at their next meeting.
Details on Dawn's battle with the school board in the next Liberal News and Commentary.
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
because
the street address uses a curb mail box,
which is not secure.
Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com