As I See it Fussin’ About Bussin’ October 2006

by Jacki Irwin

When I was a student in elementary and junior high school (which is what we called them back then) I rode the school bus until the year they began charging for the service. I remember begging my mom to let me ride the bus. I enjoyed riding home with my face pushed against the window and the breeze blowing through my hair.

My mom was there to pick me up the first week, but after that she was often delayed by phone calls or afternoon naps. After a couple weeks of that I decided to try riding my bike. We lived at the top of a hill and even in Southern California the ride down to the school in the morning was often cold and miserable. By contrast, the ride uphill towards home in the afternoon was often blistering hot. In addition, trying to ride that steel-framed Schwinn ten-speed back up the hill took a lot of energy. If the wind was blowing the wrong way it was like trying to pedal a Hummer. In two weeks my bike-riding honeymoon was over. I wanted a bus pass!

This year we have a new school in BUSD (Brentwood Union School District) to brag about. The start of school is always an exciting time of the year. Everything is fresh and new, from the pencils and sneakers to the teachers and students.

The opening of J. Douglas Adams Middle School alleviated the overcrowding experienced by Edna Hill and Bristow, but it had an opposite effect on the single approach to the school. There’s no room for the immense fleet of SUVs that jams the roadway twice a day delivering and picking up their cargoes of kids.

The problems began last year with the opening of Heritage High School. The traffic that was heading on Balfour Avenue into and out of American Avenue during pick-up and drop-off times often resembled an SUV sales lot. The opening of Adams this year has created an absolutely impossible situation.

One thing conspicuously missing from the twice-daily traffic jam was a fleet of big yellow school buses hauling children in and out of that area. Where have all the school busses gone?

A couple of years ago when my daughter attended Liberty I convinced her to take the bus home from school. Of course there were glitches. First of all, it wasn’t cheap! An annual one-way bus pass cost $180 and round-trip was double that! I reasoned that the bussing would pay for itself in gas and in the time saved by my not driving across town every morning to deliver her to the school door and then driving her back home in the evening.

My daughter’s first day on the bus was a bad one since the student riders were crammed together like sardines. She was forced to share a bench with two other kids while holding a kindergartener on her lap. It was August and the temperature inside the bus was sweltering. The closest stop to our house was over a mile from home and she had to walk home that first day during one of the most severe heat waves the area had experienced since the surface of the earth cooled off, it seemed.

“I’m not getting back on that thing,” my daughter wailed.

“You’re riding the bus!” I told her.

The next day was more of the same except that the kindergartener sitting on her lap cried all the way home. I called to complain to the LUHSD (Liberty Union High School District) Transportation Department and was told that they were looking into the situation.

That was the end of my daughter’s bussing experience. Wild horses couldn’t have dragged that kid back onto the bus. The sweating, crowding, snot, and tears had become too much for her.

We need to ask ourselves why the majority of kids in Brentwood are driven to school in a car. I guess I can see why kids don’t want to ride the bus these days. What kid would want to give up prompt drop-off and pick-up in a luxury vehicle? But why do parents put up with the hassle?

I have a solution to the horrific traffic jams caused by school children. The school district needs to make riding the bus more inviting than the conditions the riders are currently experiencing. BUSD builds multi-million dollar schools every couple of years but then tries to jam too many riders into a school bus. The children in this town would ride chartered-type busses equipped with air conditioning, tinted windows, headsets with XM Radio, and spinners. We could even stencil “Cool Bus” on the side as an added incentive! At $360 per student, they should be able to figure out how to make this a profit center!

Local citizens unite! We need school busses that we can load with children so we can off-load some of those darn SUVs and get our roads back. Let’s keep fussin’ about bussin’ until somebody finally does the right thing.°

Jacqueline Irwin
Associate Editor
jacki@110mag.com