California Student Stops Out-of-Control School Bus; Gets Detention for Skipping Class

FOXNews.com ^ | Sunday, March 16, 2008 | http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,338270,00.html

[metmom]

SEASIDE, Calif. — A 15-year-old girl who stopped an out-of-control school bus she was riding on was handed a Saturday detention instead because she was skipping school.

Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head.

Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was injured.

[metmom]

As usual, no good deed goes unpunished.

[1rudeboy]

Yes, and she learned a valuable lesson that is nearly impossible to learn in a classroom.

[Slapshot68]

Zero tolerance = zero brains

[metmom]

That’ll do more for her self-esteem than any of that feely good nonsense they push on the kids.

When you have a REAL reason to feel good about yourself, you know it. This girl has.

[AmericanMade1776]

The Girl saved the School Systems from numerous lawsuits over injury from a bus accident and saved lives, and this is her reward??

[coloradan]

This is your youth.

This is your youth on government schools.

[Navy Patriot]

she learned a valuable lesson that is nearly impossible to learn in a classroom.

Yep, in the People's Republic of Kalifornia, students should be in private school or home schooled.

[1rudeboy]

I was wiser at 15 . . . I would’ve bolted before the police arrived (and without cameras on the bus I would’ve escaped).

[khnyny]

It sounds like a Southpark episode. (rolls eyes)

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. If you want on/off this list, please freepmail me. The main Homeschool Ping List by DaveLoneRanger handles the homeschool-specific articles. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list.

I decided this one fits the list after all. The Saturday detention is one issue. The brain dead administration who would punish someone who did a heroic deed is another.

[varyouga]

I’m happy that she stopped an accident. It looks like she was on the bus because she cut school and didn’t call in ‘sick’. She didn’t miss class because of the incident like he article implies. She is getting punished for cutting school, not for stopping the bus.

I’m also wondering why and how a HS student was on an elementary school bus. Doesn’t the state control who can come in contact with kids at school and on the bus?

What if someone with worse intentions wanted to get close to the children?

[dangus]

>> Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head. <<

I HATE it when that happens? (IOW: WTF?)

[dangus]

But Rouse said she was punished because she wasn't supposed to be on the bus.

[metmom]

Rouse said she fell ill on the way to school, but instead of calling in sick, she asked the bus driver for a lift back to the bus yard before the accident happened. She must attend Saturday school as punishment for failing to call in sick that day.

I can imagine she was pretty distracted. That would explain why she didn't call in sick.

I'll bet the bus driver knew her, too. Otherwise, I couldn't see a bus driver picking up just anyone.

[AppyPappy]

“Hey girl, let me drive the bus”
“No way you are only 15”
“C’mon what can happen?”

[silverleaf]

There is no law that says you can’t recognize a kid for a heroric action but also apply consequences for breaking school rules
In this case altought the drive by media wants us to be indignant against the mean old school, we don’t know how many times this kid has skipped class

If you were the parents do you want to put your kid on the bus in the morning and then the kid tells the bus driver to just give them a ride on the next bus route and drop them off back home without the school or you knowing?

Whatever happened to radio communications in the buses so they could call the schools?

Also this bus driver wasn’t wearing her seat belt- another lapse in judgement that calls into question the facts of the whole story here

[metmom]

Aren’t there supposed to be seatbelts for at least the bus driver?

[Caramelgal]

OK. I can understand that as a high schooler, she wasn’t supposed to be on the elementary school bus in the first place but she claimed she fell ill on the way to school and was catching a ride back so she could get home.

She was supposed to “call in sick” but if she fell ill on her way, what was she supposed to do? Does this kid have a history of truancy or is this just an isolated and unusual event. There are a lot of unanswered questions here.

"She is in trouble with school because she made the wrong decision,"

Even if she had a lapse of good judgment in being on this bus and not going to school or calling in sick, she sure showed a lot of maturity and common sense in a very dangerous situation and she might have saved lives.

…when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head.

This is the question I really want answered. How the heck does a school bus driver make a turn so sudden and so violent that she fell out of her seat? Was she avoiding an accident or just driving too fast and recklessly? Is the bus driver under any sort of investigation?

[Paleo Conservative]

What if a kid didn’t have cell phone? How would he or she call in sick? There aren’t that many pay phones around anymore.

[metmom]

You’d think if the turn was violent enough to throw the driver out of her seat, the kids in the bus would have been thrown around pretty good, too.

There’s also no mention of consequences to the bus driver. Sure the girl was on the bus, but she couldn’t have gotten on without the bus driver’s permission. She took a chance and asked and it paid for her. The bus driver knows better. Technically, the driver, being the adult, should be the one to take the consequences. The girl wouldn’t be on without her permission.

I’m sure the bus driver was just being nice and doing the girl a favor, too. Girl gets sick on the way to school, bus driver feels sorry for her, figures it won’t do any harm to help her out.

I don’t see this instance as being malicious or provoked; just a series of unfortunate circumstances that could have really ended up more unfortunate.

The school is under no obligation to punish every infraction, just because it has the authority to.