No aides riding school busses this year

Is that a cause for concern?

By Michael Barrett

Freelance Writer

      In September of 1962, I remember my first day of school very well. I was five years old and went right into first grade. I always joke around that I was so smart I didn’t need Head Start or kindergarten and bypassed both. In reality, neither Head Start or kindergarten were available on the Red Lake Reservation at that time.

      Anyway, in taking that first mysterious plight of getting on a school bus and venturing off to a place called school–which I didn’t know much about at the time and I think the only reason my parents sent me was to get rid of me during the day–I was fortunate to have my cousin Claudette Beaulieu literally take me by the hand, sit with me on the bus, and guide me to my first grade room.

      She was in high school at the time and her watching out for me was something every young kid should have had. At least when you’re only five years old and haven’t really experienced too many other kids and how to deal with certain situations. I mean, how much does a five-year old really know?

      Back in the early 60's there were only a handful of busses picking up students on the Reservation, and there used to be a first trip and a second trip, which meant that one bus was making two runs each in the morning and after school. And the only one keeping the peace and monitoring everything was the bus driver.

      But Claudette didn’t normally ride the same bus as me and had just came to my home the one day to show me exactly where I was supposed to go. The next day, and there were many days in a school year, I was pretty much on my own.

      I remember being teased from time to time by the older kids, getting into fights, pushed around by older and bigger kids, being hit with spitballs fired from a rubber band, blamed for something someone else did–especially to the girls–and many other things kids do either to show off or out of boredom.

      In those days, the maximum bus capacity was like 36 or something, compared to now where a small bus has a capacity of 72–twice the size of a bus 40 years ago, and twice as many students.

      Could they have used a bus aide back in the 60's? I think so, even though most bus drivers usually took care of their own hellraisers with less restrictions than they have now. I mean, a driver could stop his bus and let a kid walk if they didn’t behave themselves. So, there wasn’t too much bus-mischief happening.

      Now, in this new century, things have changed. Bus drivers are limited on dishing out any type of physical punishment, and they would probably lose their jobs if they let someone off without delivering them to their respected home–perhaps the school district could even be sued for something like that.

      On the other hand, with such big busses and twice as many students as in the 60's, how could a bus driver be expected to drive the bus with everyone’s safety in mind and have to also watch everyone in the bus? And even in watching the students, it could only be for a few seconds because a driver was supposed to keep their eyes on the road so as not get into an accident.

      A few seconds. A lot of things can happen in a few seconds of time, as everyone should know. Even more so in ten or twenty seconds.

      Think about it. A kid can punch another in the face five times in ten seconds; a kid can put gum into a girl’s hair in one second and if they throw the gum, who could be a witness to it actually happening; a kid could throw a pencil and put out another kid’s eye in a few seconds; a kid could force another kid to take some sort of dangerous pill in less than ten seconds; an older boy could improperly violate a younger female in a matter of seconds–as well as a young boy; and on and on and on. I mean, anything can happen and it only takes a few seconds.

      Of course this is not to say anything like this happens on the Red Lake School busses, but the sad truth is, it could happen. And that’s my main point to this article, that ‘anything’ could happen when an opportunity exists.

      I have heard many stories of incidents happening on the busses some years ago, which caused the school district to put a bus aide on the bus to help monitor the kids during their ride to and from school. Order was kept, safety was not compromised by a bus driver having to watch the kids more than the roads, and a parent could feel more at ease about allowing their small children to ride the bus everyday.

      Last year my daughter was in Head Start and there was always someone riding on the bus. I had no fears about allowing her to do that because I knew she was in good hands Of course the Head Start kids didn’t have to ride with older kids in elementary, middle and high school either.

      This year, however, with the transformation to kindergarten, she now had to get on the bus at 7:05 a.m., be on the same bus with older elementary, middle and high school kids, and she didn’t get home until almost 4 p.m. She spent seven hours at school and two hours on the bus each day. A nine hour day was longer than most adults worked.

      The first day I let her ride on the bus, I had always thought there was a bus aide that rode with the kids to monitor them. I still worried because she was so young, and I always told her to sit near the front of the bus if she could. Being closer to the driver seemed like a place where something–God forbid–was less likely to happen.

      In talking with a few other parents who drove their kids to school rather than allowed them to ride the bus–and a person would be surprised how many parents do this–many said they felt more comfortable bringing their children because they were not comfortable with some of the things that happened on the busses–and even more so now that there were no bus aides. Some parents weren’t even comfortable with a bus aide on the bus.

      Here all along I had thought there was an aide that rode the busses everyday. Now that I found out there wasn’t, it made me more concerned than ever before about the safety of smaller children and the dangers that existed for them. And the more I thought about it, the more I felt I ought to stop letting my daughter ride the bus until she was older and bring her to school and take her home, myself. At least then I would know she was safe with me, rather than have to worry everyday about the possibility of something happening to her.

      It also made me concerned for other small children who rode the bus, some who perhaps had no choice because their parents didn’t own a vehicle, the distance was too far to travel everyday, or they had to work odd hours and didn’t have time to take their kids or pick them up after school.

      So why doesn’t the Red Lake School District have bus aides riding the busses this year? Good question. In talking with a few bus drivers, they said it had to do with funding and cutbacks within the school district. One driver also mentioned that a bus could get a bus aide to ride on it, but only if something happened to warrant it.

      Something had to happen first in order to get attention? I sort of didn’t like the district’s thought process on that one. What kind of a parent would I be if I didn’t try to ‘prevent’ something from happening rather than sit back and hope something didn’t happen?

      No, I couldn’t accept that attitude, because I think it is wrong to sit idle and wait for something to happen in order for change to occur. Preventing something from happening before it did, seemed more reasonable to me.

      Then again, if the issue of no more bus aides was changed because of funding cutbacks and from a financial standpoint, there has to be a better way to cut back spending from another area, rather than putting the safety of a child at a low priority.

      At least that’s my opinion. Maybe I’m wrong, but at least I’ll have peace of mind in knowing that something will never happen to her on the bus if she isn’t on it.