Friday, August 22, 2003
Friday, August 22, 2003 |
| The
bus doesn't stop here anymore, but there are other options
By Rick Ryckeley One man can only stand so much! I must speak out! I must have my say! The Wife says, "Don't do it." She thinks I've lost my mind. I've got news for her - done already lost it a long time ago. (For a job, I crawl into burning buildings.) She said the reaction from this article is gonna be worse than the fallout from the Minnesota article, but I don't care. This man can't stand anymore! Kids have been in school for the last two weeks. I know; I've seen lots of them standing down by the bus stop 'cause the school bus doesn't go door-to-door anymore. It seems that the county school system is having a bit of a budget crunch, shrinking revenues and all. Imagine that! (If you really want to see some shrinking revenues, just take a gander at your 401K plan.) No, I don't have the answer to the school budget crunch. If school taxes go up in order to build more schools and provide more services, then I'll gladly pay. No amount is too much to pay when it comes to the education of kids. It's not the kids I have a problem with; it's some of the parents. Hold on. Here comes the part that's gonna get people mad at me. Parents were on the news last week complaining that the county school buses don't come door-to-door to pick up their children anymore. Instead, the bus stops at the corner and their child must walk an extra 30 feet to the end of the street. Oh, the horror! I've got news for you; from the looks of some of those kids, a little bit of exercise wouldn't hurt anything. Told you I'd get people mad. Wait, it gets better. Back in the day, my mom made school lunches everyday for the four of us kids before we left the house. They consisted of an apple, a banana, chips, a peanut butter and honey (or jelly) sandwich and, if we were lucky, a small bag of chocolate chip cookies. With lunch safely packed away in my Batman lunch box, I took my seat in back of the green station wagon with wood panels. Then Mom drove us to elementary school; driving your kids to school, what a novel concept. The parents on the news said that times have changed, and it isn't safe for their child to walk down to the end of the street. They said that they were just concerned parents. Guess it's safe for the kids to walk down the mailbox by themselves as the concerned parent watches them from the living room window while drinking a cup of coffee. Well, all you concerned parents out there, do I have a solution for you! Just put down that cup of morning coffee, get dressed, walk your child down to the end of the street, and wait for the bus. That's what my mom did when the green station wagon with wood panels broke down, and as I remember, it broke down all the time. Mom stopped driving us to school when we reached high school. We would either ride the bus or walk. With my Batman lunch box in tow, we would walk around the swamp in the backyard, past the giant oak with the rope swing, bear right around the "Haunted Forest," up the secret path behind Candi's house, left past the fighting tree and across the football field to Briarwood High, home of the mighty Buccaneers. When it rained, we would ride the bus. Walking to school is another novel concept that seems to have gotten lost nowadays. Not mad yet? Keep reading you will be. You say you can't walk your kids to school on the golf cart paths. There are too many golf carts and bikes on them, and it's not safe? Well, I guess you have a point there. In this land of 50,000 golf carts, there doesn't seem to be a lot of room left for kids walking to school. Besides, if you really are worried about the safety of your kids, how about buying them a bike helmet and make sure they wear it every time they ride a bike and make sure they wear a seat belt every time they get into a car? Motor vehicles crashes are the #1 cause of injury and death to children under age 14. That, I believe, leads us back to school buses. "Well, then what's the solution?" You ask. Heck, why ask me? I'm just a guy who writes articles for the newspaper, and this one's just about finished. This I do know: It's a school bus service, not a chauffeur service. If you want it to be door-to-door service, then next year vote yes on SPLOST and maybe the county will have money to provide it. Besides, a little exercise never hurt anyone ... well, except that stress test I took last week, but that's a story for another time. [Rick Ryckeley is employed by the Fayette County Department of Fire and Emergency Services. He can be reached at saferick@bellsouth.net.]
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