A Texas school bus driver saved the lives of 15 children after fire consumed the vehicle following a collision with a truck. She is being hailed as a hero. The praise, the driver claimed, is unnecessary. “I don’t think I’m hero. I was just doing what I was trained to do,” said the driver.
The driver knew immediately everyone had to exit after the crash, seeing smoke everywhere. The passengers ranged in age, from junior high to high school. Some of them panicked. The driver calmed them enough so they could move, getting all on board off the bus in time, just as fire consumed both vehicles. The driver made sure she was the last one off to make sure there weren’t any stragglers. School officials and police are amazed with the outcome, the district planning to honor the driver. The driver of the truck could face charges.
An Arkansas woman was cited for unauthorized entry of a school bus after she boarded her son’s bus and refused to leave. The woman claimed that she wanted her children to sit together and not with a bully who had been tormenting one of them. “There’s an older kid that’s been bullying him, terrorizing him for a couple of years now,” said the woman’s husband. “Last week it just kind of got out of hand. He was taunting my child and then he reared back and punched my child in the face.” The driver instructed the woman to leave the bus. She refused. The driver then called the police and the woman left, claiming she wasn’t afraid to speak with authorities. Deputies confronted the woman at her house and wrote her up. She claimed ignorance of her actions. A court date has been set for the beginning of March.
A 15-year-old Houston student went to his bus stop expecting to wait for his bus. Instead, two men demanded his phone at gunpoint. The pair of suspects also took his shoes. The robbery has left the victim paranoid. “Every time I leave, I’m looking and when I see the coast is clear I just go,” the student said. This is not an isolated incident. It appears that robbers have targeted others from this particular school: four junior high students were robbed after getting off a school bus. Police plan to address this spree at a town hall meeting.
Like most of the country, Florida bans texting while behind the wheel of a school bus. In contrast, school bus drivers are legally allowed to use their cell phones as they drive schoolchildren. Take a moment for that information to sink in: There is no law in the Sunshine State against the using a cell phone while transporting kids back and forth from school. It’s up to the individual school districts to establish rules preventing drivers from cell phone use. Tampa Bay school districts, for example, ban drivers from using their phones unless there’s an emergency. This also means that disciplinary actions vary for drivers depending on where they violate the regulations.
