In an effort to confound authorities hot on his trail, an Alabama man stole the slowest getaway vehicle possible, a school bus, and ran it into a ditch. A trio of flukes the thief didn’t take into account brought authorities to his door: one, the man didn’t know a witness saw him fleeing after ditching the bus; two, authorities ascertained that the suspect lived in the immediate vicinity of the abandoned vehicle; and three, police were able to identify the thief as he was captured on surveillance cameras installed on the school bus. The suspect’s ultimate ruse proved a failure, and he was arrested and booked for theft of property first degree. He remains in jail on a $15,000 bond.
No one is above acting childish. No matter your age, sometimes you lash out immaturely. Take for instance a Michigan school bus driver who injured an 11-year-old girl after tossing a chuck of ice at some misbehaving students. The girl was an innocent bystander, having nothing to do with ruckus that caused the driver to yank off a block of ice from outside, bring it into his bus and throw it at the rambunctious group. The 63-year-old driver, who had long ago slipped past the age to know that his decision was the wrong one, was charged with 4th degree child abuse and assault and battery after the victim was hit in the head with a chunk of ice. The girl, authorities reported, received a nasty cut above her eye. She was treated at home and is expect to make a full recovery. The driver’s job, as expected, has been put on ice as he has been arraigned.
While perhaps a generation before would claim that they walked both ways uphill, trudging through massive snowstorms without proper shoes or jackets, these days, Chicago students who live too close to school to receive school bus transport will be eligible to ride to avoid wintery conditions, as long as they pay for it. School District 60 announced plans to allow families who live along existing bus routes with empty seats to qualify for paid transportation. The proposed fee is roughly $400 per year, said a district spokesman. “We hear from parents routinely, especially at the beginning of the year and in the winter when there’s snow,” said the spokesman. He added that safety is often cited as a major concern. The new policy would let families living at least a half mile from school purchase a bus seat, as long as an existing bus route can accommodate them.
Late last year, a small boy came home to his mother to tell her that he was forced to perform a sexual act on a 12-year-old student while riding a Buffalo Public Schools bus. The older boy then performed a sexual act on him. The mother of this victim alerted the Diocese of Buffalo and the West Side Catholic school of the incident, but her complaints went ignored. This wasn’t the first time. She has complained that her 6 year old has been the target of bullying for quite some time, and each time, she said she was rebuffed. In response to this recent allegation, a parents group filed a complaint on the mother’s behalf with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, calling upon the federal government to step in and require aides on school buses citywide. The urgency of the request follows a recent investigation by area police into a separate, yet similar, complaint on another school bus without an aide. “This is an unsafe situation,” said the president the parents group. “To have 50 kids of all ages on a moving bus and to say that the only adult supervision is the one who is concentrating on driving doesn’t make sense. No one is concentrating on the behavior of the 50 children.”
