Chapter Two – The Broken Body of Our Education System – We All Love a Yellow Submarine
In this installment, we’re going to look at a minor injury to the body of Sweetwater County School District Number One that can cause major injuries to everyone else. The transportation system. Even though this is just a minor wound, it warrants attention, because like a real wound, if it is ignored it will fester and lead to other, bigger problems. Let me be fair here, driving a school bus isn’t an easy job. There are traffic rules, safety rules, and scores of kids to deal with every day. Many drivers wake up every morning looking forward to the time they are going to spend that day with the children on their bus. They follow the traffic rules, provide a safe environment for the children, and become a positive part of every student’s day.
Some drivers, though, aren’t so positive, and some aren’t so good at what they do. Just recently my son’s bus driver forgot to drop him off at his stop, adding twenty minutes to his trip. It wasn’t until the driver finished his route that he realized there was still someone on his bus. My daughter’s bus driver forgot to drop her off several times. In fact, just recently, her bus driver refused to drop her off at her stop because her stop, which has been her stop all year, wasn’t on his list. So instead, her bus driver dropped her off at another stop (which he told her he wasn’t supposed to do because she didn’t have a note) so she could get a ride home from a family friend. When my wife called the bus barn the next morning, they said her bus driver “was really worried all day about whether that little girl made it home all right.†Apparently, he just wasn’t worried enough to make sure. It’s nice to know that I can depend on someone to get my kids home.
