Jonah
Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
Yes I've heard of walking buses and I have seen them on Baswich and Littleworth on a regular basis. It's a good idea but sometimes this is not practical due to a lack of volunteers. A CRC would be needed for anyone involved and some people may not like it being done - even if they have 'nothing to hide'.Big blue, this people is quite well aware that both partners in many couples have to work iot pay the mortgage. Believe me, it's a lot harder if you're not a couple, beside the point though that may be.
But I don't see how a parent having to go to work could stop a child from getting on a bus, were a bus to be available. Or from walking, for that matter. Ever heard of a 'walking bus' or a 'walking train'? One or two (there's doubtless a statutory requirement) responsible adults, duly vetted by the constabulary for tendencies that have already come to the attention of the authorities, collecting small children from their homes or other place of safety, and conducting them on foot and together with a number of their fellows, to the school? Never seen that in Stafford: why not?
I spent five years of primary and junior school sometimes being picked up and delivered by a teacher parent on his own way to work, but more often getting on the bus or walking a couple of miles. Then I spent seven years of secondary school getting on the bus. Once, a saddo exposed himself to me on the bus before running away. That was the only danger I ever experienced. The percentage of perverts in the population is, I'd wager, probably fairly stable. Road conditions and standards of driver training have improved significantly in the last fifty years. People do not drive whilst pissed any more, on the whole. We care more about the safety of kids, true, and rightly so, but where an inch is given a mile is very often taken. There are perfectly acceptable alternatives, which should be adopted by a comprehensively responsible and inclusive society, to the notion that the only safe way for a kid to get to school is by being delivered by car by a parent.
As for taking the bus to school - do you think it's safe and appropriate for a unsupervised 5 year old to get on a bus to go to school? That appears to be what you are suggesting.
And just in case you think I am only advocating taking children to school in cars - my son walked to school all through his primary years accompanied by my wife and all through his secondary years on his own.
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