Strollerderby : bus

Three Year Old Left On School Bus

Brett Singer — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:30:00 GMT

A three-year-old boy in Milwaukee was left on his school bus for two and a half hours.

When his son didn't arrive home at 3:30 as he usually does, his dad called the Northcott Head Start school. There was no answer, so he went to the school to check things out. He saw someone washing a bus, kept walking. He walked by another bus, and heard crying. It was his son. He got him out through a "half-opened passenger window."

OK, I'm upset now. Imagine how the father must feel.

The headline at TMJ4 Milwaukee's web site says "Another Child Left on Bus" which is even more depressing. How many times does this have to happen before someone starts paying more attention? Sorry to be so high and mighty but stories like this tap into very basic parental fears, at least for me. We give a lot of people that we really don't know all that well a lot of responsibility when it comes to our kids.

This happened to a friend of mine when I was too young to remember. We were coming home from day camp and they just left my friend there. I made it home. My mother was not pleased.

Something similar happened when I was a bit older; this one I recall pretty well. The bus company, which I think was called Elmsford (this was quite some time ago, so if there is a company called that today, this is not a reflection on them), sent out a driver who didn't know where any of us lived. After dropping one or two of the kids off, he just started driving around the Bronx, lost. This was before cell phones, and for some reason Mr. Dopey Driver didn't pull over and call the office. I remember giving him directions, which were very wrong; I think I was six years old, and was saying things like "I think I live near here. It looks familiar. Yeah! Turn there. That's... no, that's not it. Let's see..." Eventually he pulled over, knocked on the door of someone he didn't know, and called the bus company, who called our parents to come and get us. Luckily he knocked on the door of a nice old lady who fed us all cookies. I remember not being all that scared, but I'm sure my mother was less than thrilled.

Anyway, the boy was fine, according to the report. The bus driver may face charges of child neglect, and the incident is being investigated by the "Sensitive Crimes Division", which is a great name for a law enforcement group. (Next on NBC -- "Law & Order: SCD, Sensitive Crimes Division.") Hopefully everyone will be more careful from now.

Source: todaystmj4.com

UPDATE: Jamie Foxx Apologizes To Miley Cyrus

Man Jailed For Spraying Urine On Food And Children's Books

Boy Calls 911 When Mom Drives Drunk

Homebirthing Advocate's Baby Dies During Homebirth

Do Your Kids Walk To School?

Brett Singer — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:10:00 GMT

You know the old joke about how your parents walked to school. Up hill. Both ways. In a snowstorm. (Even in summer.) While being chased by a tiger. A really hungry tiger. (I added the part about the tiger.)

Well, with child obesity rates on the rise, maybe it's time to pull that old chestnut out of mothballs.

What prompted all this? Well, April 8 is National Start! Walking Day, sponsored by the American Heart Association. (Oh, don't pretend like you didn't already know.)

Over at SuperEco, Frank Paynter says that while many of us old folks used to walk to school, our children are catching a ride. Frank points to an article on Yahoo! Green by Jeff Yeager that says only 30 percent of today's rug rats stroll their way to the hallowed halls of learning.

Frank wonders when the move from bikes to the minivan began: "Some people cite safety concerns, but the chance that a child will be injured in a car accident are astronomically higher than that he will encounter evil doers out to sell him into child slavery on a chocolate plantation or something." He's probably right, at least statistically. But parental fear is a very real thing, whether reasonable or not. There are plenty of things I did as a young'un that I have trouble letting my kid do, like go to corner store. Part of that is where we live (New York City), but part of it is simply that societal attitudes have changed.

As for walking to school, sometimes it simply isn't realistic. For example, I lived in the Bronx and went to school in Manhattan. Taking the subway (2 of them) took about an hour. Walking was not going to happen. My son is too young to walk, and we also live a little bit too far away from his school. So it’s a good idea, and I like talking about it, but he's going to have to get his exercise some other way.

Since The American Heart Association was kind enough to set the Start! Walking Day start date in the spring, I may join in. Not my son -- he takes the bus. But I'll start walking when I go to pick him up. Frankly, I need the exercise more than he does. At least he gets recess.

So let me ask you folks -- do your children walk to school? Did you?

Image/Source: SuperEco

Family Dog Survives Four Months on Desert Island

Gloria Allred Sits On A Booster Seat

Five Ways to Go Green for Less

Oprah Gets It Right On Chris Brown

Wolverine Blow Up Toy

Mom Found Guilty of Trespassing After Jumping on Speeding School Bus

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:31:00 GMT

A Raeford, North Carolina, mother says she feels relieved after receiving a guilty verdict in connection with her actions in January, when she boarded a school bus she says was speeding through a residential neighborhood. Mindy Brumfiel says the bus appeared to be traveling more than 40 miles an hour in a 15 mile per hour zone, and so when it stopped, she got on. After the bus driver asked her to get off, she said she wouldn't until she got her own daughter off -- then proceded to call the driver and idiot and tell him he was speeding. The driver, a substitute bus driver and school custodian, had apparently taken a wrong turn and come back into the neighborhood he'd just left, drawing the attention of mothers who had just seen their children board.

Brumfiel says she had no idea it was trespassing to get on the bus -- she assumed they were public property -- but says she feels no particular remorse. “I can be guilty. That’s fine. The whole reason I’m here is because I was on the bus. I’m guilty for being a mom.”

Apparently the trespassing provision exists because some parents do get onto school buses with bad intentions -- the article mentions a mother having boarded a bus with a gun, and another parent getting on to attack a student. Still, Brumfiel's actions don't seem out of line to me. What would you do, if you saw a speeding school bus with your child on it?

More By This Author:

California Daycare Closed; Worker Was Mocking Kids' Genitals

Bad Science: How The Autism Vaccine Scare Snowballed

Preteen Accused of Shooting Dad's Pregnant Girlfriend

Bus Driver Spanks 6 Year Old For Not Sitting Down

JeanneSager — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:59:00 GMT

A six-year-old won't sit down on the bus. What do you do? If you're one Oregon bus driver, you spank his little tushie and put him back in his seat.

Or maybe (just thinking out loud here), you could put his seatbelt on and tell him to sit there . . . then write him up for disobeying and put it in the hands of administrators and his parents? Apparently, I wouldn't make much of a bus driver.

Parents of the kids on the bus have told the Eagle Point School District they'd like him removed - citing not only the spanking incident but the fact that he's an erratic driver, frequently accelerating and slamming on the brakes. The district told an Oregon newspaper it's already taken appropriate disciplinary action. Therefore: case closed.

Wait, what? He gets to touch hand to tuchus and go about his merry way? This is not a spank or not to spank issue. Because that's something parents can argue about. This guy wasn't a parent. And as such, he doesn't get to use corporal punishment.

Bus drivers don't have it easy; I'll grant you that. They're at the front of the bus, with their backs turned to a large group of kids. On the drive home, that back is facing a group of youngsters who want nothing more than to get out the energy that's been pent up all day while they sat in a classroom with hands a scribblin' and legs a wigglin'. Kids learn naughty things on the bus because there is little a driver can do when he's paying attention to traffic and seated at the far end from where a bunch of kids are talking about s-e-x.

But I'll give you the same argument here that I gave to giving teachers extravagant gifts to make up for the crappy pay: they chose this job. The degree of difficulty does not give them a bye on treating our children according to the laws of the land. They're hired to protect our kids, transport them home. Taking someone's six-year-old over your knee to teach them a lesson? That's assault people.

Image: 2News.TV

When Your Kid's is the Puny Gift to the Teacher

Students Watch Autopsy of Teen From School

School Security Guard Teaches Biology Class

Mom Gets Hate Mail for Ending Kids Thanksgiving Party

Male Blogger: Laboring Mom Not a 'True Emergency'

Middle Schoolers Exposed to Curse Words, Parents Shocked

JeanneSager — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:03:00 GMT

Parents of middle schoolers in Fresno, Calif. were shocked, shocked, I tell you, when they learned their kids had been exposed to curse words. Imagine, 12 years old and seeing f*%k in all its glory. Where have these parents been in the past 50 years?

Watching offensive language usage rise in his classrooms, the principal at Tioga Middle School said told teachers to write a list of four-letter words on the whiteboard in each classroom let kids know exactly what words would not be tolerated. Then the mother and future stepfather of 12-year-old Phoenix Hawkins complained. They want to protect his innocence, they say.

The principal's pulled the plan, but I hope Phoenix isn't riding a bus to school. That's where I learned "motherf***er" at 5 and "time of the month" at 7. Maybe Phoenix's parents should consider homeschooling? And no TV, naturally. No books. No movie. Definitely no trips to the grocery store or even outside the house.

Awww, s**t, let's just bring on that bubble.

Source: San Luis Obispo Tribune

Image: Calvin

When They Can Curse in Context

Does Quoting Steve Martin's The Jerk Make This Politician a Racist?

Babble Talk: My Daughter Gets Her Happy Ending at McDonald's

Angelina Buys Her Kid a Knife. What's Next, Maddox Jolie, Tomb Raider?

Do You Leave Your Kids in "Car Care?"

Train Hits Bus, Kills Seven Children

Cole Gamble — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:00:00 GMT

A train struck a school bus at a railroad crossing in France, killing seven of the kids and injuring a couple dozen people...

The bus was carrying 50 students, 5 adults and a driver. This marks one of the deadliest train accidents in years for France. The cause for the accident is not currently known.

Photo: reuters

Girl Saves Lives, Gets Punished

Kelly Mills — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:03:00 GMT

A fifteen-year-old high school student, Amanda Rouse, stopped an out-of-control school bus by pulling the emergency brake. When the bus driver fell out of her seat, she yelled to Amanda for assistance. The teen quickly put the brake on and the bus hit two parked cars and stopped. She then helped the driver up, who called the school transportation authorities. None of the 40 elementary school kids on the bus were injured, and the driver suffered only minor damage. Kudos to Amanda for her quick action.

So what did Amanda get for her heroism? Saturday school. See, it turns out she wasn't supposed to be on the bus at that point, but she says she felt ill on the ride to school, so she asked the driver if she could stay on for the return trip. I guess she was supposed to notify the school instead, or, as she says, "I should have gotten off the bus and called my grandma." Hmmm, if I was the school, I might consider giving her a one-time pass in light of the fact that she saved the day, but I suppose the quality of mercy is not strained, yo.

Photo: DAVID ROYAL/The Herald

Mom Goes Dirty Harry On Bullies

Kelly Mills — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 12:23:00 GMT

A mom in Jacksonville says her son was being bullied on the school bus and she wanted to put an end to it. So she allegedly showed up at the bus stop, pulled out a gun, and pointed it at students, saying, "Does anyone have something to say?" Somehow I have a feeling the kids didn't have much to say at that point. She's being charged with improper exhibition of a firearm. I can see how it might be improper for a forty-year-old woman to exhibit her firearm at kids at a school bus stop.

But I will tell you that while I certainly don't condone threatening children with guns or knives or missiles or anything, I totally get the sentiment. Having a kid has given me new insight to the almost feral protectiveness I feel towards her. And school buses are quite possibly the saddest places on earth, a yellow fleet of of cruelty and despair headed straight for hell. That might be a little dramatic, but at least in my day, the bus code was: anything goes on the school bus, as long as you mostly stay in your seat. If someone was torturing my kid on the bus, would I draw a weapon? Nope. Would I want to? Most likely.