While the tears have still not ceased to run down my face following today’s tragic death of Amrom Altman, the four-year-old child who died after being struck by a school bus, I cannot help but reflect once again on the fact that I, too, send my children to school by bus each day. Based on the available information, what happened today was not a freak accident. The child was not mountain climbing or water skiing where risk is understood and accepted. He was going to school – the very same thing each one of our children does almost every day of the year.
Op-Ed: A Parent’s Plea, Part II
While the tears have still not ceased to run down my face following today’s tragic death of Amrom Altman, the four-year-old child who died after being struck by a school bus, I cannot help but reflect once again on the fact that I, too, send my children to school by bus each day. Based on the available information, what happened today was not a freak accident. The child was not mountain climbing or water skiing where risk is understood and accepted. He was going to school – the very same thing each one of our children does almost every day of the year.
Yet despite this tragedy we will all send our children to school tomorrow either by foot or by bus. We will tell them we love them and watch as their heads bob down the bus’s aisle toward their seat, and will stare fondly as the bus disappears into the distance.
Why do we do so on a daily basis trusting without a moment’s thought that at the end of the school day, with G-d’s help, the bus will once again pull up and our precious children will run from the bus into our waiting arms to tell us about their day in school?
We do so because we know that we are putting our children into the very best hands. First and foremost we are placing them into G-d’s loving, kind and protective hands. We are also placing them into the hands of G-d’s agents who watch over the health, safety and wellbeing of our children during their transportation to and from school.
We place our trust in the teachers who supervise our children as they go to and from the bus and the school building. And we place our trust in our children’s bus driver.
There were days last week and this week when I did not trust myself to drive my children on the slippery streets, yet I trusted my children’s school bus drivers to drive my children to and from school. I placed in them a trust that I did not place in my very self.
It is for this reason that I would like to once again take a moment to appreciate one of our everyday heroes – our children’s bus drivers.
Thank you for doing all that you can to make sure that my child does not enter the street until all traffic has stopped and the bus’s door is open. Thank you for not driving off until my child is seated securely. Thank you for driving carefully and doing your best to ensure that my child has a safe and comfortable ride.
Thank you for bringing my children to where they will learn about yiddishkeit and chassidishkeit. Thank you for bringing my children to where they will learn Torah and how to act like a good person and a proper Jew. Thank you for bringing my children to where they will socialize and have fun with their classmates and friends.
But above all, thank you for bringing them back to me safely so that I can hear all about it!
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Op-Ed: A Parent’s Plea
very powerful
its a nice way to put it in a letter form!!!
ch mom
written from the heart. beautiful. thank you.
Australian
I remember growing up as a child in Australia the school i attended had people come in from different organizations teaching us about road safety from crossing streets to buses. do they have such programs in the USA, maybe schools should implement such an idea
another mother
We mustn’t forget the pain of this bus driver. I can’t comprehend what this poor man is going through. I pray he too gets all the support that rightfully is given to the grieving family. What an horrific tragedy for everyone!
brooklyn ave resident
“our kids bus drivers” have to deal with the pressure from the new yorkers who cant wait a min. or two. when we see a bus flashing red we try to see how can we get passed it, our bus drivers are busy with trying to protect our kids by wild drivers. please when u see a bus slow down and and prepare to stop let our bus drivers pay attention to the kids and get them on the bus and off safely!!!!!!!! we need everybody to mak ethe effort
stop! It-s the law!
I was behind a Yeshiva bus on Empire today. When it stopped & put on the signals I stopped too. I saw a white van on the other side of the road stop too. No one honked their horns, we all waited patiently.
Drivers, usually if you’re going in the opposite direction of the bus you keep on driving. Don’t. Do what this van driver did – stop as if you are directly behind the bus, in case a child runs across the street.
Bus Morah
As a mother and a bus morah myself, I have witnessed plenty of times cars passing buses with their stop sign out and flashing. Yes the bus driver has to be careful and the bus morah does her job to make sure kids are sitting and on and off the bus and onto the sidewalk but it’s just as important for parents to wait WITH their kids down on the sidewalk EVERYDAY! Wait for the bus to come to a complete stop and then let your child go onto the bus. NEVER leave your child alone to wait for the bus. Standing on the porch while your child is on the curb, is NOT safe!
CH mom whos kids go by bus every day..
Thank you for posting – so well written and so true! Thank you bus drivers, thank you.
CONCERNED MOTHER
NOTE TO MY DAUGHTERS BUS DRIVER
Please don’t rush to get the green light and please don’t speed off before she is sitting safely in her seat! Oh, and if it is taking her an extra 20 seconds to get to the bus please wait and don’t drive off because you might be 15 seconds late for the next precious girl!!!! BE SAFE WITH OUR PRECIOUS KIDS EVEN IF IT MEANS YOU MIGHT BE 5 10 OR EVER 15 MINUTES LATE!!!!!!!!!
chayaa
very nicely written! if only we would all stop and appreciate the little details in life this world would be a better place!
mother
this morning my children and the neightbor children did the same thing. They went up a pile of snow…..I told them that this is not safe…. But they still did! When I saw the car right next to them trying to pull out his car…I saw this picture in front of me…. On of the kids sliding down the snow hill….but bh I was there and I told everyone to come right now next to me…..I really saw it coming like a sixth sense…..what I could say from my experiences… Parents need to take their kids on and off the bus, this is such a precious time for them..once my neightbor told me “I am any way going down I will take your kids down and pick them up with mine”
I looked at him and told him. I will miss this time that I am going to pick them up, time pass by sooooo fast. For my kids to go down the bus and look at me with this big smile and getting the huge hug from them , they can’t wait to tell me about their day………. Is very precious to me….and again one day I will miss to go down to pick them up…because they will be bh growing up and they won’t need me too!!! Enjoy every minutes in your kids life eve. If it looks hard and feel pressure…….you will miss it the most
a previous bus driver
The law is that all cars must stop. Even an ambulance on it’s way to a patient or a patient in the ambulance.And also on eastern pkwy and other streets like that, that have a full devider you have to stop on the opisite side of the street in the other direction.
To Concerned Mother
I’m sure your child’s driver is not running to catch the green light, but most probably trying to make a statement to you: “Hold your child’s hand, bring your child to the bus yourself and don’t just watch from a distance how she is struggling to make it over the slippery ice and piles of snow on her own!!”
Parents MUST hold their children’s hands and walk them all the way to the bus door, it’s an option – it’s a SAFETY issue!!
stop it-s the law
I forgot to say that while we were all waiting patiently (maybe because this tragedy was on our minds) the mother was talking….and talking….and TALKING (judging by her smiles it was a nice conversation) for about 3 minutes to the driver, even though her kid was off the bus.
I think parents should also be considerate & if they need to speak to the driver, call the school or if you know him, call him at home. It isn’t fair to the drivers waiting or to other mothers waiting in the cold outside at the end of the route wondering why the bus is 20 minutes late.
Slow down !
Better to be called late than “ the late ”!
chill out
i agree with “slow down”!!!!! id rather that mother talk to the bus driver bec maybe it could be somthing for YOUR childs safty aswell
and its not that cold in CH so take a chill pill