I Don’t Understand
Posted By Jill on January 13, 2009
This week I have morning bus duty at school. We have very specific rules for parents who are dropping off their kids, and for very good reasons. We are right next door to a high school and attached to a church that holds 8:00 a.m. Mass. Our kids arrive between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., high school kids between 7:15 and 7:40, and parishioners between 7:15 and 8. Parents are to drop kids off on one side of the school, the buses drop off and pick up on the church entrance side, and the other side is reserved for the high school traffic. Our parents are told specifically that they are not to drop off their children at the church entrance or anywhere around the buses. It’s a tricky process that has been evaluated over and over.
Here’s what I don’t understand: Even after how many weeks of school and being told verbally and through letters from the principal, parents (often the same ones each day) are still dropping their kids off and allowing them to walk through bus traffic, and worse yet, where the teenage drivers are! WHY? Why does a parent put a child in that potential danger? The difference in dropping off where they should and where they do is maybe two bus lengths. And besides the possible delay because of a line of cars, I can’t see any other convenience that would make it worth risking my child’s safety. Even today, when the parking lot was slick and kids were bundled up for the cold (with more blind spots created by hats and scarves), I saw it several times.
Some of these parents are very involved in the school, who at a glance of seeing them at so many school functions and actually recognizing them (since I don’t have conferences with parents), I would deem “good parents” from what I know. But this… this bothers me. Not just because I myself am a rule-follower, but because they are putting their children in a dangerous situation. I don’t even like the fact that the parishioners have to walk across the bus and teenage driver traffic to enter the church, but there’s not much I can do about that. At least they’re not running without looking.
If you have school-age children, please follow the rules the school has for drop-off and pick-up. I can assure you, in almost all situations, the school administration has taken great measures to create the safest procedure for your children.
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