Beware of school buses

I’d intended to write about the debt ceiling, the yo-yoing stock market and pending elections. But, as a parent, I can’t ignore the calendar. It’s back to school time, which, of course, means beware of buses.

I literally mean BEWARE of BUSES!

Yellow public school buses barreling out of school parking lots like 17-year-old teens with daddy’s keys to the new turbo-charged Mustang. Child-loaded caravans taking corners on nearly two wheels. Packed buses zipping through yellow traffic lights like there’s free money at the finish line.

Anyone who’s driven in Terrebonne Parish for any length of time, has a school bus story to tell. That near-hit experience when a 14-ton yellow cylinder veers last-minute into your lane to pass some slow poke with the audacity to drive the speed limit en route to the school house.

I’ve not been in Lafourche or St. Mary at the golden hours, just before or right after school, so I can’t speak to what the roads are like. In my five years in Terrebonne, however, I’ve experienced the horror and believe our school district owes me a T-shirt in return: “I Shared the Road with a TPSB Bus and Survived to Tell.”

I’ve lived in five south Louisiana parishes in my lifetime, each of which takes back-to-school seriously. Parents and young people are warned weeks in advance to take heed. Safety is, appropriately, a priority. In St. Charles Parish, huge yellow signs are erected reminding drivers the safety of school-bound children is a premium.

I’m sure the sentiment is equally strong here among parents. Likewise, TPSB employees care. Including, probably, bus drivers themselves.

Yet, this week, I know there are drivers, pedestrians and even students who will have a brush with a bus that will leave them thanking God they’re not traveling among the bugs in the grill of a Terrebonne school bus.

To be fair to the faithful drivers who suffer the pre-dawn gloom of a gaggle of kids who’d rather be anywhere else or the incessant afternoon chatter on the drive home, I called TPSB Transportation Supervisor Devlin Aubert Friday in hopes of gaining a better understanding of the challenges bus drivers face in delivering approximately 17,500 students hither and yon. My call has gone unreturned.

When Mr. Aubert does get back to me, I plan to ask him what’s the rush? Where’s the fire?

Until then, I’ll just reiterate my previous warning. Schools are back in session. Buses are rolling. It’s every man, woman and child for himself. Beware!