The news reports that a five year old kindergarten student was left alone at the wrong bus stop.  The story in and of itself is upsetting, just imagining that poor little guy scared and alone and his Mom frantic with worry is sickening. A straight story of what happened and what will be done to prevent it in the future would suffice here. But is that good for ratings? Probably not. 


Watching the news clip left me feeling a bit uneasy. As I continued to ponder it I understood that the clips had probably been edited in order to skew the story a bit. It seems obvious from the clip that the counties first response was to apologize. A very appropriate response. However this was thrown in at the end of the video. The clip before shows the woman from the county saying that when the child was asked he gave his home address. Was this purposely edited this way to make it seem that the county was blaming a 5 year old for their mistake? I think it was.  I am not naive nor do I wear rose colored glasses, but I am quite certain that this intelligent, well educated woman with a wealth of educational experience would not even imply this was the child's fault. 


Perhaps the edited part we could not be trusted with was when the reporter said how does something like this happen? The response probably went something like this "Well first off let me say that we are very sorry. We have talked to the people involved......blah blah blah. It seems that the student was on the correct bus to begin with an older student said he did not belong on that bus (?) so the bus driver asked the child where he lived. Perhaps that driver then said to an adult at the school 'This kid doesn't ride this bus, he should be on bus....' The adult then whisked him to the bus which took him to his home neighborhood but not his after school address. We believe this is how it transpired." That sounds a bit different. The child isn't being blamed, and the responsibility is clearly with the school. This simply details how the boy was put on the wrong bus to begin with. After all, without knowing your history you are destined to repeat it.
 

With that said, clearly in a court of law the county would be held responsible had anything else transpired. I think we cannot for one moment overlook the part the bus driver played in this fiasco. Ultimately, minor mistakes were made at the school which could easily have been corrected had the driver done his job. The idea of the driver dropping this little guy off, closing the bus doors, kicking up gravel as he pulls onto the street and leaving a 5 year old crying and unsupervised leaves an indelible image in my mind of how the moments before this went. Imagine if you will........

 

A small child sitting on the bus crying softly and clearly scared  A burly person (man or woman? yes) spitting "tabaccy" by-product into a once clear bottle, and hitting the steering wheel of the bus s/he is operating.  The kids are quiet on this bus and the child wonders why until the driver says "boy yew betta suck it up cuz I cain't oporate no big bus with all that wailing an lessin yew want ta b gater cweeezine yew bitter shutty."The boy tells the driver this is not my bus. The driver looks up to the rearview mirror, locking his yellow sclera glare on the little boy. "Yors teacher dun put you on this heaahh bus. Do yew recon sheze ignert? No shay ain't ." 

As the driver returns his attention to the road his mullet gets caught in the seat and he screeches a blue streak. Hot, angry, (smelly) and irritated he continues leaving the kids at their appointed stops. When the little boy remains in his seat at his wrong stop, the driver turns an angry, beady, yellow eye and with baccy in his teeth he says "This heaaahhh isn yors stop so git on." The boy says "I want my mommy." "Shay ain't heaahh, an I ain't paid to babysit so yew hafta git cause I gots to git  on home ta mine double wide so I cin see my brother/cousin, Eustice and his baby mama Amaleen on Cops. Again.  Now git on afore I cutta switch." Now sobbing, the child cries "but this isn't where my mommy picks me up." The driver scratches the yellow underbelly of his formerly white tshirt and says "Boy, stop assasin me and git on off this cheer bus. I got me a cold bud in a can awaitin for me."