Few seem to have raised the red flag when Ontario’s Ford government’s cutbacks forced the cancellation of school bus monitors in Ontario. Monitors or those persons who accompany school bus drivers on challenging routes where, for example, special needs students may require more attention, crowded buses make it difficult for children to share seating, or other scenarios where bus drivers cannot apply their full attention to driving a school bus. Often these monitors are essential to providing a safe environment for children. While there were some minor protests lodged by groups such as trade unions, otherwise, nothing has been discussed in official news media or in social media about what could happen if bus drivers become distracted by situations that often develop inside a school bus or while children are exiting or entering a school bus.
It takes special attention, experience and wisdom by bus drivers to understand where to apply one’s attention when multiple incidents are occurring at once. And the extra eyes and ears of a school bus monitor can be of great assistance to the driver. When collisions occur official police investigations will often blame a school bus driver for failing in recognizing some hazard while few police have sufficient knowledge of school bus driving to recognize what a school bus driver has to deal with. When a task is complex lack of recognition of all hazards becomes more likely but that is rarely recognized when someone must pay for a misfortunate catastrophe. The connection is not made between the government that creates unsafe situations and the actual incident where a child is injured or killed.
So maybe we can continue to believe that The Grinch will inhabit school buses, maybe even a Santa Claus or two. After all, what could possibly go wrong?
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