Students at Glenn Hills Elementary School participated in Richmond County School System’s bi-annual school bus safety program yesterday.
The program, designed to teach school bus rules, including emergency evacuation, is taught to all of the school system’s pre-K through 5th grade students.
Accident Investigator and Customer Service Coordinator Dana Byrd said the school system has been acquiring new buses over the last couple years. Students do not know what type of bus will pick them up until it arrives.
“Hopefully at some point, we will get enough money to go ahead and buy some more buses so that everyone is doing the same thing,” he said.
All of the students started with verbal instruction on an older bus. Afterward they learned how to evacuate off the newer buses, designed with an emergency side door instead of a back door, said fifth grade teacher and Bus Coach Tamika Shepherd.
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The training included bus stop instruction. Bus Driver Michael Ford told the students they should wait for late school buses up to 10 minutes past their scheduled arrival time.
According to Byrd, training did not include instruction on mask-wearing, even after Board Member Venus Cain brought up three drivers’ complaints regarding students’ inconsistently wearing masks while riding the buses during an RCSS Board of Education meeting last month.
“We want them to get to school quickly and safely,” Byrd said “Hopefully, they come to school with a mask on.”
Proper mask-wearing should be included in the bus training, Cain said in a telephone interview March 1. She said it seemed like the obvious time to teach it.
“I am going to ask questions,” she said.
Shellie Smitley is a staff writer for The Augusta Press. Reach her at shellie@theaugustapress.com
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