Students aboard a Maize South High School bus in Wichita, Kansas, were relieved to know that the collective, sinking feeling they all experienced was actually the bus they were on dipping into a sinkhole. The bus was parked near the school when its rear left tire began to sink through the pavement. While students were on the bus, no injuries were reported. Parents were alerted of the developing situation, which turned out to be a sinkhole that measured 7 feet by 6 feet, and administrators reported that routes would be delayed while a solution is formed.
Parents in Maricopa County northwest of Phoenix are riled up about proposed route cuts that will affect the transportation of special needs students and children who live within a 1-mile radius of the school they attend. The reduced routes are an effort of the school district to comply with calls from the Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to slash money from non-classroom related expenditures to redirect the dollars back into the classroom. Parents have started a petition against the change, but administrators have stated that the policy shift will begin as planned in September.
Police in Birmingham, Alabama responded to a toy gun alert on an elementary school bus after an Alabama first-grader was caught with the faux weapon. The bus driver noticed the child brandishing the plastic firearm and notified the principal, who called in police support to bring down the underage perpetrator. Birmingham Police Lt. Scott Thurmond reported that the infraction by the 7-year-old boy was not a police matter. School officials defended the decision to involve police as outlined in the district’s Code of Conduct.
A bus driver in Knox County, Tennessee was removed from his position after a passing motorist reported that the driver was texting while behind the wheel of the bus. The dismissal comes on the heels of the deadly crash in the area that killed two elementary students last year. It was discovered upon investigation that the bus driver in that incident was sending a text right before the crash occurred. In this latest case, while there were no students on board, school officials said they felt the behavior was cause for expunging the driver from the current roster. “While we’re working through this, we continue to scrutinize our operation and how we’re providing service,” said one school official. “We’re continuing to try to ensure that we’re doing our due diligence on all fronts.”
