There’s a hook in a rhythm and blue song that goes, “It never rains in Southern California.” It certainly doesn’t happen much, and rarely if ever in mid-July.
Tell that to Los Angelenos at the beach this past Saturday afternoon.
So far, it’s not been much of a summer here. Near the coast, we’ve been lucky the past several weeks if the thick, grey marine layer gives way to partial, hazy sun by 4 or 5 p.m. each day. As the temperature has hardly breached the 74 degree mark in well over a month, many around the nation would be thankful for such moderate weather. But, of course, local residents here can’t wait for some good old fashioned 80 degree weather.
I thought just how lucky we are, and potentially kids on the school bus, after reading an article about a school bus driver and his monitor who are being charged with felony child neglect after leaving a 5-year-old boy with autism on the school bus for an hour in 103-degree heat with all of the windows rolled up.
The incident occurred on July 9 as the city was in the throes of a heat wave that stifled the entire East Coast.
It’s amazing that with all of the media attention, industry training and plain outrage from parents that these stories of children left alone on school buses continue to happen, especially when there are two adult employees responsible for check the bus. And, according to the Norfolk Crime Examiner, the driver and monitor have been employees of the school district for a combined 32 years.
