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Health & Fitness

School Bus Service: Where the Sidewalk Ends or Never Begins

Why would the school district want to endanger our children by cancelling the district busing, knowing very well that we don't have sidewalks?

There has been quite a bit of buzzing going on with the talks of the school district killing off the student bus services. I was flabbergasted when I read this online for the first time. It seemed to me that NOT providing busing for the kids was almost unconstitutional!

As I blogged yesterday, I am having a very difficult time getting my high schooler to school because I leave for work too early to take him and we live 3.0 miles from the school, which is too close for him to take the district busing and the RTA routes won't really work for him based on where we live and where his school is.

Yes, he can get up earlier and leave the house earlier and walk, ride a bike or even a skateboard to school.

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That is what he did yesterday. His ride did not show up on time and so he grabbed his long board and headed out. He made it there safely and sent me a text once he got there.  I of course called the school to excuse him for being late. (This makes the school angry, by the way.)

I got home from work and to my surprise my son was home and just kind of hanging out. This is very odd for him because, being 16 and having a large circle of friends, he is always on the go. About a half hour into me sitting on the couch with him, he says, "Well I had quite an interesting day today!" 

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I thought, "Oh great, busted by the cops or busted at school?" I just didn’t know what to expect. I certainly did not expect what came out of his mouth next. He was hit by a car while riding his skateboard home from school! He was not hurt too bad, more shaken up than anything.

Now I go back to the school district cancelling the bus services for the kids. I know where I live -- we don’t really have sidewalks other than in the actual neighborhood. To get to Elsinore High School, you need to venture down Corydon toward Mission Trail. If you are familiar with the road, you will know that there are no sidewalks and people drive much too fast. You will also know that there is an accident about every other day on Corydon. Now imagine the district stopping all busing and ALL the kids in Elsinore having to walk to school! There are NO sidewalks. How can they think that this is ok?

Their first screw up was the change with the district boundaries and now the talk of cancelling the school busing for the kids. Why don't we just cancel the school board and let the parents run it?  Are the board members even parents?  Do they understand the concern and safety for kids or is it all about how to get more money in their pockets at the end of the day?

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