Incidents in at least four states — New York, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama — revealed a heightened level of vigilance in the days after the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

In Gainesville, Georgia, last Friday afternoon, a Hall County Schools bus driver heard a passenger say something about having a gun, according to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office. The driver alerted the transportation department via the radio, and the department called 911.

Deputies from the Hall County Sheriff’s Office and officers from the Gainesville Police Department responded to the scene. Authorities said they evacuated the bus and conducted a thorough search of the bus and the students, but they didn’t find any weapons The Hall County Sheriff’s Office said that investigators arrived and determined that “the incident was in fact a hoax perpetrated by a 16-year-old male student.” That student was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, disrupting public operation of a school bus, and simple assault.

A similar incident took place in Daphne, Alabama, on Friday morning. According to Eddie Tyler, superintendent of Baldwin County Public Schools, “a student made flippant comments on a Daphne bus about bringing guns to school, another student heard it and called 911 from the bus.” Law enforcement officers responded to the scene and surrounded the bus. The superintendent didn’t provide further details on the incident, but he urged parents to impart to their kids the importance of not talking about guns or bringing guns to school.

None of us can go about our normal business after the Florida tragedy without giving serious introspection about the safety of our students,” Tyler said.

All school districts are on heightened alert to keep our students safe from harm on school buses, in school rooms and at school activities, with the copy cat incidents and threats that are currently happening,

A school bus driver in Duncanville, Texas, is sharing his newfound love of chess with students, teaching them the game during his time off in an effort to connect with them and encourage them to further their education.

Donald Harris, who has been driving for Duncanville Independent School District for five years, initially began teaching the game during lunch in a high school cafeteria to one student who rides his bus, according to a story published by the school district. Harris learned the game himself just a month ago, when the student he first began teaching chess caught his attention. He told Dallas News that the student “always made eye contact with me,” so he just asked him one day if he played the game.

Soon after, Harris started teaching more students to play two or three days a week, spreading out chess boards across a table, according to the newspaper. The district’s principal, Tia Simmons, had taken a photo of him teaching his first pupil and tweeted it, which drew a significant response. He now purchases chess boards regularly for $7 and gives them to students.

Although Harris, who is also a shuttle and limousine driver, enjoys introducing newcomers to the game, he mainly does it to help students feel good about themselves. He told Dallas News that the game “keeps kids focused on education” and that “you want to give them some inspiration outside of the norm.”

Harris was interviewed in November by NBC DFW and is described as a mentor by the news source. He also posts college pennants and stickers on the bus he uses to transport Duncanville High School students.

Recently,  another terrorist attack occurred in Manhattan, New York, during which the suspect used a rental truck and ran over numerous bicyclists in the park.  The attack with his vehicle ended when he ran into the right rear quarter panel of a school bus which had students and some adults on board.  Two students and two staff members were injured in the attack and a number of them were initially trapped inside the bus from the extensive damage caused by the attacker’s vehicle.

The question of a terrorist attack towards a school bus has been one that has been asked thousands of times from school bus drivers across the country.  In this case, once the terrorist attacker rammed the school bus, he then fled in his own vehicle with two fake weapons in his hands and was eventually shot and taken into custody by NYPD officers.  The question still looms – what could the bus driver have done if there had been an attack on the bus.

What continues to happen is how many bus drivers across the country still don’t know what their rights are in a crisis situation, and when and where force may have to be used.  What level of force could have been used by this driver in the Manhattan school bus incident if the suspect had turned his attention towards the bus with an intent to do harm to those inside the bus.  The answer is he could have used equal or greater force to defend himself and the students and staff inside the bus.  Most school bus drivers haven’t received proper training in these high-level crisis events.

Realistic training offering have been developed for professionals all over the country on various violence-related issues.  One of the classes is titled “Defensible Use of Force on the Bus,” and is by far one of the most requested trainings provided to school bus drivers and staff around the country.  Focus is on situational awareness and recognizing potentially dangerous events.

The state Senate voted 44-0 Tuesday, January 23, 2018, to override Gov. Henry McMaster’s veto of $20.5 million to cover the cost of buying 210 new school buses.  That money will help the state cut the number of fire-prone 1995 and 1996 buses in operation to 349, better ensuring the safety of thousands of S.C. students who take the bus to school each day.

The new buses will be distributed across the state with each school district getting new buses by fall, said S.C. Department of Education spokesman Ryan Brown.

Feature articles that drew the most traffic on the School Bus Fleet website in 2017 included tips on buying a used school bus, an immigrant’s journey from cab driver to running a school bus company, and adding red lights to buses to deter illegal passing.

Here are details on the five most-viewed features of the year.

1.    How and When to Buy a Used School Bus
11,474 views
When it comes to purchasing a used school bus, you may already know a lot more than you think about making the right choice.

2.    From Cab Driver to CEO: An Ethiopian Immigrant’s Drive for School Bus Success
6,580 views
Tashitaa Tufaa discovered a passion for driving and a need in Minneapolis for a dedicated school bus contractor. He now employs over 400 people as the CEO of student transportation company Metropolitan Transportation Network.

 

3.    Extra Red Lights Linked to Decrease in Illegal Passing
3,898 views
Five Iowa districts that tested supplemental warning lights on school buses have seen stop-arm violations drop by at least 50%.

4.    School Bus Tracking Apps Aim to Give Parents Peace of Mind
2,402 views
Tracking apps can be a useful tool for alerting families when there has been a bus delay or route change. These apps are also designed to help students have fewer tardy days and absences.

5.    10 Phenomenal Women in School Transportation
1,841 views
School Bus Fleet found out more about some of the women across the U.S. who are crucial to making school buses run safely and on time.

Throughout time, poets have drawn inspiration from a myriad of sources, from nature to love. George Horne took his inspiration from a school bus!

Horne, a pupil transportation consultant who began his career as an English teacher, has published his own collection of poems about the yellow bus world and the people in it. He even penned a series of limericks about the Southeastern Pupil Transportation Conference.

Horne’s creative works have touched on both the comical and the serious sides of school transportation. In his work Black and Yellow is Our World, originally printed in 2012, he covers such topics as the important work of the school bus driver, the educational robot Buster the School Bus, federal motor vehicle safety standards, and a school bus unloading fatality. He even wrote a poem about transporting students with disabilities. Here are a couple of verses from the poem:

The Special Point of View

By George Horne

It’s start-up time on Number 2.

I take my seat and pray,

“Lord help us meet each challenge

That confronts us on this day.”

My driver, Gus … perhaps the best …

A gentle man, but firm.

The kids all like his curly hair

And tease about his “perm.” . . . . .

Our students all are such a joy.

Each has a different place

In mine and in the heart of Gus.

They know! It’s in each face.

St. Mary Help Of Christians Catholic School in Aiken, SC, has a new bus.  It is the traditional yellow, but students affectionately have nicknamed it the “Green Bus”.  Catherine Green, St. Mary’s office manager, and her children, Michele and Jason, gave the bus to the school as a gift.  Their gift has become a lesson in giving  –  and receiving.

Green and her children originally wanted the gift to be anonymous, but decided that it was important for the students to know the bus was a gift and who gave it.  In 25 years of being the school’s secretary, Mrs. Greene has cared for, healed, protected and disciplined them.  She approached her husband a couple of years ago about buying a bus for the school that did not have the funds in their budget to purchase one.  It just never happened – at that time.

After her husband passed away in March of 2017, Mrs. Green and her children decided to use some of his life insurance funds to purchase the bus for the school.  This past fall, Green learned of an upstate, family-owned business in Chesnee that sells used buses.  After her first choice fell through John Dunbar, the school’s regular bus driver, drove to Carolina Bus Sales, Inc., to check out her second choice.  Green and Dunbar picked up the new-to-St. Mary’s bus, a 2005 model, in November.

Green said the school was long overdue for a new bus and there was not enough duct tape in the world to hold together the 1984 bus that the school was formerly using.  She stated that her family’s gift is a way to give back to a school that has given them so much and that it feels great to give and to teach that what you do for others, you’re doing for Jesus Christ.

A school bus adorned with Christmas lights, reindeer antlers and other decorations took home a top honor in a local Christmas parade last week.

Humble Independent School District (ISD) bus driver Nicole Pennetta came up with the idea to enter a yellow bus in the parade, and she organized efforts to decorate the bus. Another Humble ISD driver, Karen Ferris, dressed as Mrs. Claus and drove the bus in the parade.

For the Dec. 2 event, Humble ISD assembled more than 50 drivers, attendants, other staff members and kids to ride in and walk with the bus down Humble’s Main Street.

The festive school bus was apparently also popular with the parade’s judges: The Humble ISD transportation team won the motor vehicle float category.  Trophies will be presented at the Humble City Council meeting on Jan. 8.

Humble ISD, based about 20 miles north of Houston, transports approximately 11,000 students to and from 43 schools with a fleet of about 267 buses. The district’s buses cover more than 1.7 million miles per year.

Carolina Bus Sales, Inc. wishes a Merry Christmas to each and every one of you!!!

Hundreds of Southern California schools are shut down as a result of at least a half-dozen raging wildfires, stretching from Santa Barbara County to San Diego County.  It’s the second time in two months that fires have disrupted the school year in the state.

More than 200,000 students have been affected by school closures in about two dozen districts, the largest being the Los Angeles Unified School District, which closed at least 265 schools.  The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the Getty Museum, and the exclusive neighborhood of Bel-Aire are also being threatened.  Using vehicles to evacuate patients from medical facilities, vans and school buses are lining up to remove patients as workers in masks pushed frail residents in wheelchairs across parking lots and roads.

At least 899 structures have been destroyed, including 701 single-family homes.  Eighteen thousand are still in the path of the fires and are being threatened.

Please keep these areas in your thoughts and prayers.

We have posted blogs about how school bus drivers go above and beyond their duties of getting students to and from school and school activities.  This is another story about how drivers are serving their community and those in need.

Omaha school bus drivers prep for their big Christmas party as they continue efforts in wrapping gifts and spreading the holiday cheer for their adopted children from Restored Hope, according to WOWT.

Bus driver Charlene Dunn who works for contractor Student Transportation of America detailed that she and other staff will hold their annual bake sale to raise money for additional gifts for the children and their big Christmas party on Dec. 16.

Dunn and fellow team members will bus the children into their south base for their event. She also indicated that her 18 students have received gifts, and possibly more.

Another way school bus drivers are giving back!