Imagine that your friend tells you that they don’t wanna go home today due to their parents fighting. You want to help, so you invite them over to your house after school. You decide to bring them on the bus with you. However, once you’ve boarded, the driver tells your friend that they need to get off due to “school policy.” You both exit the bus, and in the time that you both spent trying to find another way home, the buses have already left.
There are plenty of reasons why a student might want to board a bus other than their own. To hangout with friends, get a ride to an extracurricular, or even to save gas money. However the second they step onto said bus, they are often told no by the bus driver. This can cause real problems for students. Such a rule is unnecessary and not fit for a high school setting,
McHenry High School does not own the buses that they use. Rather, they are owned by District 15. According to the D15 website, students are not allowed to ride a bus that isn’t theirs. This makes sense when talking about elementary school students. Of course small children shouldn’t be allowed to go on one another’s bus. They can’t be trusted to communicate with parents, act responsible, etc. However, when we apply the same rules to elementary students as we do high school students, we have problems.
Students are restricted from bringing a friend with them on the bus. Yet half of high school students are above the licensing age. According to the Illinois Graduated Drivers License program, new drivers are permitted to bring one friend inside their vehicle. So if students can legally drive, and bring another person into their car, why are these same students permitted from bringing another person onto the bus?
The most surprising part about the entire situation, is the fact that MCHS does not discipline students for riding a bus that’s not theirs. According to Dean Jeffrey Schroeder, not once have they punished a student for doing this. And this is surprising considering the amount of students who have been given threats by a bus driver. Threats to report their behavior to the principal. The same principal who doesn’t even have this rule.
Why are elementary school rules being applied to high schoolers? Some of whom are legal drivers or even, legal adults? When students break said rule, they are threatened with their behavior being reported to the dean or principal. Yet these threats are in vain. MCHS doesn’t punish on such grounds, and they most likely never will. High School Students should be allowed to ride their friends buses. This shouldn’t be controversial since not all rules are universal.
Dave • Oct 8, 2024 at 9:15 am
I believe you answered your own question. District 156 does not own the bus’s and is paying for a service under an agreed contract. This allows district 15 to make their own decisions about the rules and what they deem a potential Liability. You are comparing rules of elementary students and stating that they shouldn’t apply to highschool students. Do these potential liabilities stop when you get to a certain age or grade? When something negative happens on theses buses, actions will be expected to happen both the parents or the school. This goes back to the original negotiated contracts set forth by both District 15 and District 156 and who is liable. What happens if a student takes a friends bus but has bad intentions to harm another student? This is not about age nor what grade you are in. This is about a very specific task and that is to get all public school attendees who choose or are eligible to ride a bus, to and from school safe. I’d have to agree with you about District 156 not disciplining the student(s) when breaking the rules and they should. Maybe if the school and students are held accountable it will help the staff and students remember the importance of the rules that have been set forth by previous decisions made by both districts before an actual incident happens. Drivers license or not the majority of the students being affected in this discussions are not of the adult age. While their mind sets are not that of a elementary school kid the big picture sometimes is hard to see when rules don’t seem “Fair”. At the end it is to protect the students, drivers, and school and eliminate potential problems in District 15’s services they provide to District 156.