Bob CollinsThanks to the creeps among us, these are difficult times for adults who just want to do something for kids.
It’s perfectly understandable that at least one parent is upset that she didn’t know a school bus driver in East Grand Forks, Minn., took the kids to Dairy Queen to celebrate their last day of school.
Still, in years past, this might be the sort of small-town nicety that wouldn’t elicit parental panic. These days? It’s hard to trust anybody.
The Grand Forks Herald says one mother went to the school board this week to complain that she didn’t know it was a tradition among bus drivers in the city to take kids to the Dairy Queen on their last ride of the year.
When she waited for her child — school gets out early on the last day — another mom told her about the tradition. So she drove to the Dairy Queen and found the kids and their buses.
“I was pretty upset,” Jackie Marks said.
She hadn’t gotten any notice and didn’t sign a permission slip.
Superintendent Mike Kolness said the district will try to improve communication but the Herald says Marks thinks the district isn’t taking the transgression seriously.
She believes loose policies on unsanctioned field trips set a poor example for children who might think it is OK to go anywhere with an adult.
“This is not something a bus driver has the power to do,” she said.
Marks, who moved to the area two years ago for her husband’s new Air Force posting, said friends in other areas have told her the driver should have instantly been fired, if not charged with a crime. Local reaction has been tamer.
“I feel a little bit like we’re in some sort of bubble,” she said.
Marks said she is fine with bringing the kids for ice cream, but said it was handled the wrong way.
“Times have changed, too,” Kolness said. “We need to make sure we’re doing things right.”
This might be a tradition best left to die in a changed world. Thanks to the creeps among us, school bus drivers can no longer be trusted with kids.
