Hush

The Boy reports today that the bus driver doesn’t let them talk on the bus when it is raining.

Having driven a bus in Durham* with young passengers and having driven in the rain with squealing kids, I understand completely.

*Ask me if I think it’s a good idea that high school students can no longer drive school buses in North Carolina.

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 Durham North Carolina, Durham Schools

8 Comments to Hush

  1. I’ll bite. So, so you think it’s a good idea that high school students can no longer drive school buses in North Carolina?

    They’re still allowed to drive Suburbans, right?

  2. Toastie on August 28th, 2008
  3. Yes, I think it’s a good idea that high school students don’t drive buses anymore. There are downsides, but the upside is that you don’t have kids hurdling down the road without seat belts at the hands of a relatively inexperienced driver with a developmentally typical lack of fear of death. But I’m generalizing based on my own experience.

    Here’s another: my cousin (second cousin once removed) removed the governor from the engine which kept the bus at a safe 45mph so he could drag-race the bus on off-hours. In the mornings M-F, he practiced his cornering skills on the way to school while our tiny fingernails gripped the hard green vinyl to stay in place.

    I’m sure there were sane, safe teenaged bus drivers. I just didn’t know any.

  4. Valerie on August 28th, 2008
  5. I’d never heard that story! I figure I’ve got a 1 in 11 shot at figuring out which cousin it was, though… lol

  6. ACW on August 29th, 2008
  7. Bingo! :p Number 10.

  8. Valerie on August 29th, 2008
  9. High school students used to be allowed to drive school buses?!? Yikes, that’s a scary thought!

  10. Tanner Lovelace on August 29th, 2008
  11. We were much more mature then. I am, of course, being facetious. :)

  12. Valerie on August 29th, 2008
  13. I rode a few student-driven schoolbuses in both Asheville and at NCSSM. I suspect that one of the NCSSM buses was replaced/fixed by the time Valerie got there, but it had a crunched up roof, perhaps because one of our members couldn’t do the “greater than/less than” thing with the number on the side of an underpass and the number probably written on his dashboard.

    In other things, I was un-seatbelted in the front seat of a Chevy Suburban that another high school friend of mine rolled back in Asheville. It is completely miraculous that no one got hurt. Completely miraculous.

  14. Phil on September 20th, 2008
  15. Scary story about the Suburban! Yes, the bus was fixed, although that explains the driving instructor screaming Brakes! at my fellow bus driver-in-training as he gunned it past Brightleaf towards that overpass.

  16. Valerie on September 20th, 2008

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