In a few days, the Pine Belt streets and highways will become more crowded, more children will be crossing in front of buses and drivers will be required to slow down in school zones as students return to their classrooms.
Safety will be the key ingredient for a healthy and happy first day of school, according to officials at the local and state level. For Lamar County Schools Police Chief Steve Rosser, safety is everyone’s responsibility.
“I’m not so sure that everyone understands that,” he said. “I’ve been preaching that for many years. It takes everybody working together, including the School Board, superintendent, administrators at the school, the staff, the teachers, all of support staff, custodians – everybody is involved.
“We struggle and we strive to educate everybody on what their roles are and getting them to buy into that responsibility. When you get into education, you don’t always know what you’re getting into. You think you have this one role. No, the overarching role is school safety, because our ultimate goal is to return these children home to their parents in the same condition they entrusted them to us that morning.”
Pat Kribbs, the Lamar County Schools Transportation Director, is keenly aware safety is the most important thing about first day of school.
“We want people to be aware that there will be more traffic around schools, and to watch their speeds,” he said. “The most critical times of the day for a school bus is when you pick children up and you drop them off. We want people to make sure they watch when those amber lights go on and a bus is stopping.”
Melinda McGrath, Mississippi Department of Transportation Executive Director, agreed school zones and buses are the keys to school safety.
“Be alert in school zones and near school buses to keep Mississippi students safe,” she said. “An accident can occur quickly if drivers are not cautious.”
The area 10 feet around a school bus is the most dangerous for children because visibility can be reduced, McGrath said. Stop far enough back to allow them space to safely enter and exit the bus.
Rosser said the responsibility of following the school district’s policies and procedures falls on everyone.
“Will some of those policies and procedures be inconvenient? More than likely,” he said. “Safety is more than likely inconvenient. Think about seat belts. When we first started wearing seat belts, that was probably inconvenient. Today, we wouldn’t even think about riding down the streets without our seat belts.”
Students and parents can keep up with the policies and procedures in the handbook, which is online.
“From a school safety standpoint, students are responsible for school safety also,” Rosser said. “Sometimes, but not often, students will hear about things going on around the campus. When they hear, they know things that relate to school safety. It’s part of our policy and they are made aware of this through presentations that we do at the beginning of the year and in January that they have a duty to report that. That duty to report that to the administrator or one of their teachers is one of the venues.”
Rosser said a program in place for several years gives students a confidential way to report what is going on.
“On the TipTxt, we train them at the beginning of the year on how to do this, and this is at the middle schools and the high schools,” he said. “It is also addressed in the parent-student handbook. It relates to bullying, drugs, fights, harassment, suicide, vandalism and weapons.”
Because of the times for student drop-offs in the mornings, a lot of the traffic frustration comes in with people just trying to go to work, Rosser said.
“They may not be a parent; they may not realize that school is starting,” he said. “They travel this route every day to go to work, and now the path of least resistance is the path of greatest resistance. At the beginning of the school year, things are most congested around the schools. If we could ask everyone to be patient, pay attention and avoid distracted driving in the areas not only on our campuses but off our campuses.”
Rosser said school resource officers will be in full force Monday.
“On our campuses, we have these signs as parts of what we have posted to try and remind everyone not to be distracted,” he said. “We have children and adults in the road trying to do their job.”
Rosser said the safe and efficient flow of traffic does not mean that traffic is going to be moving at a swift pace. “We are going to be safe and efficient.”
Rosser and Kribbs also stressed the importance of keeping children safe as they ride on the buses. A new sign will be posted on buses this year, warning parents and unauthorized personnel from boarding the bus or distracting the driver.
“We have in our handbook for years information about interfering with the operation of school bus,” Rosser said. “If someone is boarding the bus or standing at the door and impeding students from getting on or off or having dialogue that may be inappropriate with the driver, it is against the law. We do investigate and we do prosecute for that. However, we would rather work to be proactive and prevent them from occurring.”
“With the new signs, we want to make sure no parent or unauthorized person is on the bus or harassing a bus driver,” he said. “We have not had that happen very often, but it has happened in the past.”
Kribbs also said he expects the traffic situation to improve with time.
“It takes about a week for things to iron out,” he said. “The younger kids, especially the kindergartners, are so excited getting on that big yellow bus. It’s good that each of the younger children will go through a bus safety class.”
For more information about school zone safety and to download a free coloring book for children, visit www.GoMDOT.com/safetyeducation.
