Bus Driver Guilty of Braking Hard (to throw misbehaving children from their seats)

[The Straight Story]

HUNTLEY, Ill. (AP) -- An Illinois school bus driver has been found guilty of intentionally slamming on the brakes to throw misbehaving children from their seats.

A judge in Huntley, Ill., found Julieta Clinton guilty on Tuesday of reckless conduct and child endangerment as part of a plea deal in which Clinton did not admit guilt.

McHenry County prosecutors said Clinton was driving 54 youngsters to school last April when she became frustrated with their unruly behavior and braked hard twice.

Her attorney said it was an accident. One youngster was treated at a hospital and 18 others were treated at the scene.

The children ranged in age from 5 to 10. Clinton is scheduled to be sentenced on April 3. She could face up to a year in prison.

http://www.news10.net/news/whatsupwiththat/story.aspx?storyid=53591&catid=157

[Chulanowa]

1. I snapped my arm when a bus driver smacked the brakes to avoid an idiot car

A nice clean fracture across the ulna. I'm a pretty robust guy. I can only imagine the harm that could have come to CHILDREN... thank goodness school bus seats are padded!

This driver needs her ass kicked

[itsrobert]

2. Wouldn't it be better to put seat belts on school buses?

Make the kids wear them? I guess a child life is not worth the few extra bucks to put seat belts on buses. We must give the rich a tax break.

[Tumbulu]

4. In my impoverished rural area the (mostly republican) school board bragged that they bought

all the busses prior to the seat belt law. Yet another reason to avoid the violent underfunded public school at all costs. This school bus has been driven into a deep ditch twice in just three years and STILL NO SEAT BELTS.

But, the real question is, how are school bus drivers supposed to be in charge of driving a bus and keeping the kids from being wild on the bus. I hear of the kids smoking dope on the school bus and shining laser lights in other kids eyes, and beating up little kids. Really, there needs to be another adult in charge of keeping the kids under control so the bus driver can drive. And if the school district has not the funds to pay someone, then parents should take turns riding the bus with the kids.

[Chulanowa]

5. I've never seen any bus with a seatbelt

Besides the minibuses that are often used for the elderly. The problem is, if you put seatbelts in public transit - school, metro, whatever - they're going to need to be replaced within a week. And then the week after that, and the week after that. So instead they put lots of hand-holds on metro buses and pad schoolbus.

Sadly, cost IS an issue. Though maybe the core issue are assholes and dumb kids that will mess up the seatbelts

[mwooldri]

8. They're mandatory now on buses in the UK used on school-only routes.

And there's someone on the bus as well as the driver to ensure that they all put them on.

No, they don't have to replace them weekly. And not every school bus is one of the yellow kind we have here (though they're making inroads because yes, the American schoolbus is actually very safe). Often, school buses operated by private companies (the non-yellow kind) do double duty as regular public transit buses (though not on high frequency, urban routes... generally the twice or once weekly shopper-buses, or the low frequency routes during the day in rural and semi rural areas).

[CRF450]

9. Seat belts on a school bus are actually a bigger hazard than without them.

[canoeist52]

3. Jeesh, I remember our bus driver in the 60's doing that to us.

Used to scare the crap out of us. I guess the "good ole days" are returning.

[justgamma]

6. My dad drove a school bus for years.

When the kids got unruly, he wouldn't say a word, just pulled off to the side of the road and sat. They soon learned that if they didn't behave, it would take longer to get home.
Yes, the parents complained and he was called in front of the school board. They ended up backing him. Not much trouble after that.

[Kitty Herder]

7. When I was in kindergarten, our busdriver used to give us thrill rides.

There were only 6 of us on the full-size bus going home after kindergarten, so we would sit in the very back and beg her to drive fast over the big bumps in the road. We would go flying up in the air and hit our heads on the racks. We loooovvved it. It's a good thing nobody got hurt (aside from minor bumps on the head) or Carol would have been in big trouble. That would have been a real shame because she was a sweet lady. Her grandson was among our small group; I'm not sure if she would have done that if he hadn't wheedled her.

This story reminded me of those good times. Of course, we loved being thrown around the bus and it wasn't a punishment.

[Squatch]

10. How could the bus driver have known that only unruly kids would be thrown forward?

What a douchebag.