So I had just went to the leg tanner, and went by the *cutest* little shop called "Chick-a-dees". Oh my goodness. I have never been around so much *girlie* frilly stuff. No, not baby stuff. Not children's stuff, really... just a variety of beautiful girl stuff that any woman, or girl, would enjoy. Bright fun colors, decorated ever so creativity, and just a lot of style! I've been wanting to go into this store forEVER, as I drive by it all the time but just never went in. Aspen had a birthday sleepover that she was going to that evening, so I needed to get a gift and thought "Why not?". Such a cute store.
So, after I bought a kitty webkinz and the most darling necklace w/ pink flowers that had "BELEIVE" daggling down, I left to go hop on the interstate to drive & get the girls from school. I happened to get behind a public school bus, full of inner city school kids. The way that the public school system works around here is that they bus kids from the inner city to the schools in subburbs to give them a "fair shot" so to speak. Well, at the back of the bus were all these kids standing up, quite the scene from my view. I kept seeing bodies (I didn't know if it was the same one, or not) getting thrown back and forth from seat to seat. Then, I see two boys POUNDING on another kid- just basically beating him, then they tossed him over the seat and it appeared that another kid started taking his turn. I watched this go on for a good 5-8min. until the little boy (probally 12, 13 from what I could see) got thrown to the very back seat- perfect view from where I was driving behind, and one kid held him down and just kept punching his face, over and over :( Another kid was on top of him and just beating his back. It was the most HORRIBLE thing I have ever seen in my life. My heart was racing, I had tears in my eyes like "Oh my goodness, what is going on in there?".. I drove up next to the bus, started blowing my horn to try to get the bus drivers attention, which he didn't even look over. The bus driver was looking in his rear view mirror and SMILING.. almost as if he thought it was funny what was going on. I was APPAULED. My heart was absotuely breaking for this kid who was getting BEAT at the back of the bus, with no one there to protect him. Not even the bus driver. I slowed down, got behind the bus again and wrote down the lincesed plate number and the bus number to report it. All the while, they were still just BEATING this poor little kid. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!!!!.. What I witnessed wasn't just "a fight". I've seen fights in my life, this little boy was getting beat by 2-3 other kids and there was obvisouly nothing he could do but just take it. :( My heart fell to my feet, I was CRYING at this point, and in just disbelief. I drove up, right next to the bus and just honked my horn like crazy- a good 2min. at least until FINALLY that damn bus driver looked over at me. My window was rolled down, driving probally 55mph- and the guy just kept looking at me with this smurk. I just kept on honking my horn. FINALLY he slide open his window and said "WHAT?"... I said "THERE IS A FIGHT GOING ON AT THE BACK OF THE BUS!".. He smurked and said "I KNOW!".. I wasn't even thinking, I screamed "THEN PULL "F-ing" OVER THEN!".. My hands were SHAKING, my pulse was out of control,... it was unreal! He just shook his head, shut his window and slowed *way* down. NOT to pull over, but I'm assuming so I couldn't get his bus number to report him. (who knows!).....
I'm about 3min. from the girls school exit, and i'm just bawling my eyes out. My heart was litterally broke. I know I keep saying this, but words can't describe what happened. The bus driver could have VERY easily pulled over at 2 exits, but did not. He could have even pulled over at the exit I got off of, but he choose not to. I wiped my tears, tried to clean up my make-up and pulled into the girls school. I was still shaking (my hands), I went to the office with the lincsed number and the bus number. There were A LOT of people in the office since it was Friday, and the VP was in the middle of a conversation. She saw me and said hello, I TRIED to keep it together but just broke out in tears, sobbing over what I had just witnessed. She was in disbeleif, she hugged me and said "THIS is why we choose to send out children to a school like this!"... she got out the phone book and she dialed the number to the bus system where I reported it. I gave all the information to the lady and she said she would make sure it would get to the right person. I said "Please make sure it does, I've never witnessed ANYTHING like this before in my life and my heart is just breaking for this little boy!".. she said she would.
After I got off the phone, I spoke with Mr. D (Courtney's bus driver last year when she rode the private bus) he said that unfortunatly, there is nothing that that bus driver could have done. That when they are hired, they are told that they are not to touch any of the children, fight or not, and they are not to interveen in any, way, shape or form or that they would lose their job. They are "trained" to pull over, call the cops and let the police deal with it. I WAS APPAULED!.. He said he worked for the public school bus system for a year and this very reason is why he quit. He said that there is nothing that they can do. WHO IS PROTECTING those children on the bus if this is how the system works?
I haven't stopped thinking about it all weekend. That little boy has been on my mind so much. I am following up on Monday to ensure it was taken care of, and I'm also contacting the local news station and reporting to the story to them in hopes that at least I'm heard- there needs to be something done to protect those kids on that bus from things like this happening. It is SO sad :( and what I witnessed, I will never forget in my life. :( It was HORRIBLE.
I'll keep you updated on what comes out of this, if anything. I just really feel that I was there to witness what I saw to be the voice of not only that child, but for other children as well. :( If the public school bus system just wants to wash their hands of things like this and basically turn their head to it, then something needs to change.
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