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Published on 03/02/1998 All articles from this issue

Kids' safety should be No. 1

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By Michelle Costello

Other Voices

The more I learn about schools in America, the more amazed I am about the similarities to business. School jargon may differ, but the problems, issues and often even the solutions applied in business very much mirror what happens in schools. What is different is the ''core" of each of these units.

At the foundation of businesses are the so-called crown jewels of a business - in most cases its intellectual property. That intellectual property has become increasingly important in recent years. So has the energy put forth protecting it as evidenced by the rigor in ensuring ownership rights and use. In theory, it is extremely difficult to replace intellectual property.

In education, the crown jewels of the school are its kids - better said, our kids. Unlike the crown jewels in business, these crown jewels are absolutely irreplaceable. For that reason, we should never accept behaviors or situations that endanger those crown jewels.

Every time your child gets on a school bus, they are in danger. With no seat belts, they are riding with the potential to free fall in case of a short stop, and possibly worse. In my mind this is a crisis, a crisis we as local citizens need to address. Parents are accepting of a very blatant threat: there are no seat belts in school buses that transport our crown jewels.To date they seem to have accepted it without fanfare.

The same kids whom we, as parents, would never let set foot in our automobiles without buckling up, we knowingly allow to be transported three-to-a-seat (along with our precious teachers, by the way) sans physical protection. It is literally a crisis, and a crisis that we shouldn't wait to be fixed by a government mandate.

The crisis proportion of the problem is evident in the statistics. On average, 38 children die in bug-related accidents, each year. From 1985 through 1995 there were 95 crashes of school buses reported, including 559 fatalities and countless numbers injured.

There are some districts that have stepped up to the crisis on their own and mandated seat belts in school buses. Dearborn, Mich. is one of those districts. In the Detroit News, Dearborn's director of operations Jerry Uchtorff said, "The idea of seat belts on buses has yet to catch on and I think that's primarily for economic reasons." According to that report, the district pays about $3,300 more for each of its buses equipped with seat belts. Also stepping up are public schools in New York and New Jersey that require students to wear seat belts.

In Los Altos, where the kids only occasionally get on buses, seat belts in buses probably haven't been a hot priority. But why not? We have made sure facilities are updated, play structures are safe and the schools look beautiful, but has no one thought about the safety of our crown jewels?

So the question for Los Altos parents to ponder is this: is it important for your crown jewels to be protected by seat belts in school buses? If the answer is YES, then here are some ideas of what you can do:

1. Submit the idea to your PTA. Surely some funds should be reallocated towards fixing school buses in our district. Collectively, they could minimize the cost.

2. Write your congressional or senate representative to push them to initiate a seat belt mandate in school buses.

3. Make it a hot topic in your school. Talk to other parents, teachers and the principal. See what ideas can be generated on how to fix the problem.

Buckle up, and have a safe day.

Michelle Costello is a Los Altos resident.