Kid’s Report School Bus Driver Who Is Driving Erratically Due to High BAC.

SEE SOMETHING, HEAR SOMETHING = SAY / DO SOMETHING: Kid’s Report School Bus Driver Who Is Driving Erratically Due to High Blood Alcohol Level.   

WESTAMPTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- A female bus driver in NJ was arrested on Driving Under the Influence (DUI) charges after the school children she was taking home called their parents to complain about her driving. Nervous students contacted their parents after Carole Crockett allegedly was seen falling asleep behind the wheel and swerving the bus she was driving in Westampton Township. The parents called 911, and police caught up with the bus at Holly Hills School, while she was trying to pick up more students. The 46 year old bus driver’s blood alcohol level was found to be .25 percent -- more than three times the legal limit of .08 percent. She faces 25 counts of driving under the influence with a minor and child endangerment. Bail was set at $10,000 for the disorderly conduct offense. Superior Court judge Michael Haas set bail on the endangering charges at $75,000. The driver was released after posting bail and her next court date is Nov. 17.

Points For Discussion:

• These students should be praised for their intelligent and morally responsible act of calling their parents when they saw something wrong and dangerous to themselves and others.
• One Critique in An Effort To Be Even More Prepared In The Future. Teach children to contact 911 FIRST when there is danger, an immediate serious safety threat, or an injury and THEN call their parents. Activating 911 first can save lives if their is an imminent safety threat or medical injury.
• Make a public example of these students for doing the right thing and protecting the safety and security of each other. Recognize them at a school function, PTO meeting, and have a local news article to be written about them.
• Energize the community to always OBSERVE school bus driving performance as they go about their day and to REPORT if they see a distracted school or unsafe (swerving, going thru a traffic light, etc.) bus driver.
• Positive Use of a Student's Cell Phone / Electronic Device: I am not a fan of allowing students to visibly display or liberally use a cell phone /iPhone during the school day
  (topic of a future post), but this is exactly why students should have the means to communicate if things are unsafe or they need help at anytime. 

EVERYONE (Students, Teachers, Parents, Administration, Workers, Delivery personnel, neighbors, citizens) all have a ongoing role in school preparedness. These student's got it right and prevented disaster.

Who is Watching The Kids? Toddler Assaulted at Sea World by Family Friend.

STUDENT / CHILD PHYSICAL SAFETY IS THE NUMBER ONE PREPAREDNESS GOAL.

Orlando, Florida. — A 26-year-old man is alleged to have raped a 2-year-old girl at SeaWorld Orlando and saved pictures of the crime on his cell phone.  Michael Grzybowicz has been held without bail in the Brevard County Jail. He is accused of raping the child on Feb. 17 after her mother had asked him to briefly watch the toddler inside the theme park. Pictures of the alleged rape were found on Grzybowicz’ phone and sent to his e-mail account. Records state that four photographs in the phone's memory chip showed the violation of the youngster wearing a diaper and a yellow sun dress while she rode in a dark blue stroller.  Grzybowicz told investigators that he didn't know how the photos got onto his cell phone.  The victim’s mother said the only time she left her daughter with Grzybowicz was when she and her boyfriend went on an amusement ride. The four had spent the day at the amusement park. A warrant indicates Grzybowicz faces charges of sexual battery and lascivious molestation on a child younger than 12.

While this horrific story is about failed parental supervision resulting in a predator's abuse of a child, there are numerous points for consideration for student safety and security. THIS WAS NOT A SCHOOL TRIP.

Points for Consideration:

• As a parent, do you know the adults that come in contact with your child?
• As a teacher or educational leader, do you know the adults who come in contact with your students throughout the course of the school day and extracurricular activities?
• Schools which have Child Development Centers, have special considerations about child safety & security.
• Volunteers for school trips must be vetted. Just because you think you  "know" someone (as the mother in this story did) doesn't mean that you truly know who they are. 
• If students see, hear, or expereince something they feel or know is inappropriate do they know who and how to report it?
• If a student has a drastic change in behavior, what resources do you have available to try to determine if there is a problem?

Sea World issued a statement and takes active steps to protect the safety of all visitors to their park. Ultimately, parents are responsible for the safety and security of their children. Parents and Educational leaders must take a team approach to this critical school preparedness goal.

Effects of Winter & Cold Weather on Schools

SEVERE AND / OR EXTENDED COLD WEATHER CREATES UNIQUE HAZARDS

Being in the Northeast, we certainly get snow in the winter but this year it has been worse than ever in the volume and duration of snow and extremely low temperatures. Extreme temperatures, heavy volumes of snow, ice, melting & re-freezing have an effect on school operations, students and faculty, the facility, and the school incident management process. For example, an evacuation for a fire in freezing temperatures can cause cold weather injuries on students within a very short amount of time.

Here are some observations or points for discussion concerning adverse effects of cold weather:

• The freezing, melting, and refreezing caused the earth under the concrete to swell not allowing three external doors to open which would be used in an evacuation.
• This was forwarded to school safety committee and adjustments to evacuation were made until the ground thaws in warmer temperatures.
• Melting snow and the ensuing drainage becomes new ice the following day following evening low temperatures.
• Uncleared sidewalks or narrowly cleared sidewalks (due to weeks of snow) resulted in students walking in the road to and from school.
• Tall snowdrifts create dangerous blindspots in parking lots, entrances and exits to schools, and on numerous street corners, coupled with pedestrians walking in the roads is a bad combination.
• Heavy accumulations of snow on roofs can cause damage or even a roof collapse.
• Melting and falling Ice bridges and large icicles from roof can injure people.
• A school evacuation (fire, bomb, etc) = relocation to another school ASAP (As Soon As Possible).
• Using school buses as warming shelters until students are relocated is an improvised option, if you can initiate this fairly rapidly.
• Budget cuts affected the number of available snow plow drivers or overtime permitting school parking lots to be cleared to support school operations resulting in some school closures.

How Good Are Your School Bus Drivers...?

Points to Ponder:

• Who checks the credentials of the school bus drivers that drive your students to school?
• What type of assessment is done throughout the school year as to their performance?
• Do parents and school officials have a process for assessing bus driver performance or do you react to an incident and then fix the problem after the fact...? 

Incident:
A West Haven CT bus driver was charged with driving with a suspended license and due to his poor judgement and substandard driving performance for putting 21 students lives at risk. The bus he was driving got stuck under a bridge in water (due to flooding) under the Washington Ave bridge following a ongoing rainstorm. The students had to stand on the seats as water flowed through the bus. The driver was 70 years old and he disregarded an orange cone warning of the rising flood waters. He drove over the cone and got stuck in the rising water until the bus stalled. The driver was charged with 21 counts of risk of injury to a minor as a result.

Just because school buses are out of sight and out of mind is no reason to assume the school bus drivers are administratively current in their certifications, and operationally sound in the employment of their vehicle.

Discussion: School Buses and Seatbelts

NTSB Bus accidents and occupant protective systems video:

http://www.ntsb.gov/Events/1999/buscrash/details.htm link

After a Connecticut 17 yr old student was killed in a school bus crash in February 2010, there is great discussion to institute the use of seat belts on school buses. Some of the links on the video simulate what can ocur to passengers if they are unconstrained in a crash. Kid's bodies become missiles in a crash and the laws of physics apply. We require kids to have seat belts on in every other circumstance but a school bus...? The average cost to retrofit a bus with seatbelts is $15, 000 and installing them to a new bus is $ 1, 500. Annually there are 17,000 injuries to students from school bus accidents and six are killed a year. 

What do you think?

Middle School Fight on School Bus Results in a Box Cutter Slashing

FIGHT ON SCHOOL BUS = 1 arrest, 3 suspensions, 1 injured (slashes to face & hand), and 1 school relocation

On March 17, 2010 in Waterbury, Connecticut a fight between two 14 yr old boys from North End Middle School on a school bus resulted in one boy slashing abother boy who started a fight with him. The boy who started the fight received seven stitiches to the face and six stitches to one of his hands.The fight stemmed from a previous dispute. Both boys were arrested and suspended from school. the boy with the box cutter is now placed in an "alternative education setting outside of the public schools. " A girl on the bus was also suspended for trying to hide the box cutter after the fight. (Source: Republican -American newspaper).

Points for Discussion:

• How aware are teachers and school staff (administrators, guidance counselors, security, secretaries, food service staff, etc) of student conflicts? Regardless of how insignificant a conflict between students appears or where it originates (outside of school), it can have an impact in the school environment or school activities. 
• Students carry weapons when they are afraid, feel threatened, plan to commit criminal activity, feel the need to imtimidate, mentally unstable, and plan to injure of kill others.
• How comfortable do students feel reporting problems or conflicts to the adults in your school building? This is critical to developing preventive or interventive measures to stop students from hurting one another or themselves. 
• Every member of the school staff and teachers needs to actively and openly promote that students need to immediately report threats of or acts of physical altercations, intimidation, bullying, or criminal activity. Countering the child-like or criminal mindset of "Stop Snitching" needs to be addressed as a dysfunctional philosophy which only protects criminals and bullies and has no place in the adult world they hope to join someday. This priming is essential to teaching them to advocate for themself and feel empowered vice be victims.
• Physical Altercations, Weapons, and Bullying (Intimidation) need to be addressed severely to send the message that this will not be tolerated in a school environment, school activities, or society at large.