To the editor:
A few weeks ago I overheard a bus driver/janitor talking about what appears to be hypocrisy in our schools. It was in regard to the unbelievably long hours school bus drivers were told to work in conjunction with sports event trips and other night/weekend field trips.
He said day after day they had to be at work at 5 a.m. and, along with their normal morning, noon and afternoon bus runs and normal janitorial duties, they were then expected to do long-haul field trips, often arriving back at the bus garage at 1 or 2 a.m. They then had to clean their bus and be back again the next morning at 5 a.m. to repeat the entire process. He expressed surprise that a major accident hadn’t happened in Maine yet and concern that it was just a matter of time before such a calamity happened if the powers that be didn’t act.
Hearing this and knowing that sleep deprivation and drowsy drivers are responsible for more deaths each year than drunk drivers, I asked him why he or the other drivers hadn’t said anything to school administration officials who could do something about it. He stated that to do so might tend to get people fired.
It seems to me that school officials who always express how valuable a resource children are, would not only want to know about this danger, but would be quick to take action to prevent loss of life. It also seems to me that once parents are aware of this they would force such actions, and/or withhold their own children from participating in these activities until such time as more reasonable measures are in place.
How about it? Are they really our most precious resource? Or is it just rhetoric?
Clare Kierstead
Presque Isle
