Cathy Marvin, who works an Idaho health center, is surrounded by blood, daily. She loves it, especially when Halloween rolls around, as it helps connect her to her favorite holiday.
“I figure it’s the only time of the year where I can dress up, act kooky, do what I want to,” said Cathy, wearing a Halloween-inspired smock with spider earrings and bats hanging from her eyeglasses. “Nobody really cares because they know I like Halloween the best.”
Accessorizing an office is one thing, but every afternoon, the full-time phlebotomist heads to her second job and Halloween follows her. Five days a week Cathy drives a bus for the Council School District. And you can guess which bus is hers.
“So when I became a bus driver, I thought I’m going to take my holiday and I’m going to make it fun for them,” said Cathy. “So I started decorating my bus.”
That was 13 years ago. Now it’s a morbid menagerie that keeps multiplying, making it possibly the coolest school bus in Idaho.
“Well, I hear it’s probably the only school bus in Idaho that does this,” said Cathy.
Between all the hanging heads, the lingering limbs, and the barely hanging-on bones it might be too freaky for some. But Cathy doesn’t do it to be scary.
This should not be a surprise, but with fines coming in at a minimum of $326.50 and four demerit points, Wisconsin drivers are also being found to speed up to pass school buses before their lights change from flashing amber to red just as drivers speed up to get through intersections before the traffic signal turns from yellow to red.
Police are warning drivers this practice has the possibility of being dangerous. While doing this is not considered illegal, the passing could put students at risk who are hurrying to get on or off the bus.
“Flashing amber lights are a signal that the school bus is preparing to pick up or drop off students, so drivers need to slow down, pay attention and proceed carefully,” said a police spokesman.
A new state law went into effect in August requiring all school buses built after 2004 to be equipped with amber lights—lights that give motorists more time to react to a school bus that’s getting ready to stop. However, motorists are thinking of the amber on a bus as yellow on a traffic light.
If it involves a naked man wandering the streets, it has to take place in Florida. St. Augustine authorities arrested a St. Johns County man after he was discovered walking through a neighborhood naked and his wanderings took him near a school bus stop.
Local news outlets reported that 45-year-old Wallace Wrobel has been charged with indecent exposure of sexual organs. Police said they located Wrobel a few feet from a school bus stop, getting the naked man into a patrol car mere minutes before deputies saw several children walking to their bus.
While Wrobel denied taking any drugs, he told authorities he had vodka in his system. Yet, later tests at jail showed that he had a zero blood alcohol level.
A Northern Kentucky woman accused of punching her daughter’s school bus driver was arraigned from the Kenton County Jail, where she spent the night on an assault charge. Barbara Dobbs, 37, was on crutches at the hearing, but it’s not clear if her injury was connected to a confrontation between Dobbs and the staff of a Kenton County school bus.
Dobbs is accused of punching the bus driver in the face and shoving a bus monitor. The assault was on board a bus as it was making a stop. Students from the area middle and high schools were on board at the time, including Dobbs’ teenage daughter, authorities said.
The attack was caught by the bus’ on-board security system, but officials will not release the video to protect the privacy of students. The incident was called “unacceptable.” Dobbs is charged with felony assault because the incident involved a school district employee.
