After watching the video of the school bus driver in our district make national news, it’s clear that the bus driver made a poor decision in dealing with the student bus rider. He even admitted in a TV interview he had a bad day and reacted to the situation poorly.
I, for one, have a lot of respect for the bus drivers; they do a job that requires technical skill and interactive personal skills. If all we needed was truck drivers that could manage the bus itself without dealing with the live cargo then being a good driver would be the important consideration. If in addition to operating the bus, we ask that the driver also wrangle the kids, then that requires different skills.
I entered the school system as a first grader 55 years ago. There were bus drivers then too, but there was a difference. In my “old days” bus drivers got more respect and student riders were expected to behave on the bus; if they didn’t behave, they didn’t ride the bus any more.
I know that things have changed a lot in the past 55 years. Today, kids don’t respect their bus drivers, their teachers and if that is the case, they probably don’t respect their parents either. I say that because respect starts at home. Parents who never teach their kids respect seldom get respect.
I listened to parents describe their “near nausea” at the sight of the child being yanked to the floor of the bus. Did it ever occur to any of them that the child in the video has a responsibility for the outcome as well? I am not suggesting that a six year old can be responsible in the same way that we expect the bus driver to be responsible, but we have clear rules for riding the bus and we hold the driver responsible for the safety of the kids. If he fails in that regard, he is subject to punishment.
That looks like the bus driver is in a lose/lose situation. If he requires that the kids stay in their seats, and they refuse, the bus driver is punished. If the bus is involved in an accident and the child is injured it’s worse. If the bus driver takes any aggressive measures to get the kids to comply, he is punished. So how does that work for the bus driver?
I am not trying to make a case for bus drivers. I am trying to make a case for the responsibility parents have to teach their kids respect so that when they go out of the home they treat others with whom they interact with the respect they deserve.
It takes hard work to be consistent with kids in teaching them hard lessons. But if we don’t start teaching those lessons when the kids are young, they rarely learn them at all and we can see where that leads.
What Mr. Taylor should have done was keep his cool that day and subsequently refused to transport that child ever again. School bus drivers should not be forced to work in conditions where they have huge responsibility and no authority. Kicking unruly children off the bus is the only tool available to drivers today that considers the safety of the other kids.
And NO, riding a school bus is not a right, it is a privilege. Abuse the privilege and you lose your ride. Let the parents figure out how to transport their unruly kids. And maybe after we get them to school, we apply the same techniques to the class rooms. Drop by any public school to observe and you may well be truly nauseated.
Some of the righteous parents who are “sickened” by the behavior of the school bus driver should see their little darlings in the class room then tell me who has a right to be sickened.
Judging from what I have seen, Mr. Taylor is showing proper remorse for his actions and has quit his job as a bus driver. I am sorry if that doesn’t satisfy “outraged” parents. They can always show how angry they are by suing the school district. To what end, I don’t know. Or maybe they can look at the outcome and be thankful things didn’t turn out worse and chock it up as a learning experience for everyone.
Litigation seems to be the answer for parents who never learned to respect other people’s rights either. They are eager to teach everyone they won’t be disrespected, but fail to learn the lesson for themselves.
No Loss for Words 
Leadership Happens at the Front
by Steve DanaSo I am watching The O’Reilly Factor and Bill is interviewing Sarah Palin, talking about Social Security and Medicare Reform. He asks her what specifically she proposes to modify the system and she launches into some spiel about everyone having to shoulder some of the burden which didn’t even partially answer Bill’s question. He tried to get her back on track and she continued to evade his questions until she finally had to offer something.
Sarah Palin isn’t likely to get an easier questioner than Bill O’Reilly and she couldn’t come up with better responses than “nothing speak”.
If Sarah Palin (or anyone else for that matter) expects to be taken seriously as a candidate, it will be necessary for her to come up with better answers than that lame drivel.
If Sarah Palin has any chance of being elected president, it will slip away quickly if she isn’t prepared to address issues like O’Reilly’s with answers that speak to the issues. Governor Palin is entitled to act like a politician, but our country needs a leader. The reason Americans should support her is because she has good ideas she can articulate to solve problems plaguing our country. So is she just a politician or a leader?
The double speak of politicians who are afraid to tell the truth because they are afraid of losing votes make them losers from the get go.
Governor Chris Christie isn’t running but he has ideas he is willing to share. All Governor Palin would have to do is echo Christie’s comments. Something like: “I think Governor Christie made some good suggestions the other day; raising the retirement age to 65 for early retirement and 67 for full retirement for folks who are younger than 57 today and to 67 and 70 for folks who are 47 or younger today. I could support a solution that included those changes, recognizing that means testing and payroll contributions might also be on the table.”
Leadership happens at the front of the formation. The person who ultimately is nominated to run against Obama must take on the problems in the public debate with decisive answers to the questions and clear plans to address the problems. If they are afraid to offer their solutions as a candidate there is little chance they have any. Period!
I question whether Sarah Palin can be elected. I appreciate her passion in addressing Conservative issues many of us support and she connects really well with common folks who have been out in the cold for a long while so I want her to be a part of the process, but I think her best contribution would be as a GOTV operative.
Chris Christie is popular with Republicans and Democrats because he addresses problems head-on with solutions that are painful but that make sense. He has consistently been honest with his constituents and the rest of us at times when he addressed national issues; unlike the too many to list here who are always testing the wind (or the water) before offering their thoughts. In the vernacular, he “Walks the Walk!”
If Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are the entitlement programs with the greatest impact to the budget drain then that is where the spotlight needs to be.
Since we know that elected officials tend to want to be re-elected, they seldom take big chances that might endanger re-election.
My sense is that Americans are looking for leadership in dealing with the big gorillas and evading the issues just serves to identify those potential candidates who aren’t leaders.
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