NationStates Jolt Archive

I ask you all to look at and approve my proposal for safety on school buses.
It is currently on page 16 but will update this thread as that changes.
To Any Mods, if i have put it in the wrong catergory then please let me know as i considered that carefully before i posted it.
Any feedback you might have please let me know.

Master Tom
Orions Belt

This is the Proposal (it is usually a good idea to post your proposal here on the forums since several of us do not have the time to sift through all those pages of proposals):

School Bus Safety
A resolution to restrict civil freedoms in the interest of moral decency.


Category: Moral Decency
Strength: Mild
Proposed by: Master Tom

Description: Keeping Our Children Safe

It is time to protect our children from harm
on school buses.

Article 1: All school buses are required to stop at
all RR crossings.
Article 2: No school bus may make a right hand turn
on a red light.
Article 3: All school buses will be equiped with
seat belts
Article 4: All school buses drivers will undergo a
background check

Violations: Any driver found to have violated any of
these rules will face the following actions.

1st Offense: A written warning.
2nd Offense: A 2 week suspension.
3rd Offense: Fired.

Any child found to not be wearing there
seat belt will face the following actions.

1st Offense: Verbal warning.
2nd Offense: Parental notification.
3rd Offense: Parental conference.
4th Offense: Expulsion from school bus.

Approvals: 7 (Master Tom, Kasironia, Juggalo Izland, Jolly People, Coolet, Ophainia, WZ Forums)

Status: Lacking Support (requires 134 more approvals)

Voting Ends: Thu Dec 2 2004

Just glossing over it now, I do not agree with a fair bit of the proposal. First of all, it should be the bus driver's duty- not the child's- to ensure that the child is wearing their seatbelt, because some of these children are too young to know better. If a child becomes a problem and refuses to comply then you give out warnings, but not because they don't wear the seatbelt. Do you really want to fault someone because they're too young to understand the dangers?

Second of all, I do not believe a bus driver should be held accountable for having a faulty bus- after all, some drivers get their buses handed to them, and if the provider doesn't give quality buses, then it's the provider's fault, not the driver. In such a case, the provider should be held accountable. In this scenario, you have the potential for a provider to continue providing faulty buses and do nothing about it since nothing will happen to them, just the drivers, which will be detrimental to the cause.

Therefore, I will not be supporting this proposal.

Questions.

1) What on Earth is an RR crossing? Never heard of it.
2) Given that in Enn (and OOC in large sections of the globe) we drive on the left side of the road, why would we ever allow any vehicle to turn right on a red light? Left on a red light at some crossings, yes, but not right.
3) Could you explain how this worthy of international jurisdiction? I would have thought this to be national at most.

Questions.

1) What on Earth is an RR crossing? Never heard of it.
2) Given that in Enn (and OOC in large sections of the globe) we drive on the left side of the road, why would we ever allow any vehicle to turn right on a red light? Left on a red light at some crossings, yes, but not right.
3) Could you explain how this worthy of international jurisdiction? I would have thought this to be national at most.

RR = Railroad Crossing
Ok so if you live in a country where you drive on the left side of the road then it would be for turning left except on a green.
How is it worthy of international consideration?
Given that many countrys in the world are still many years behind most of us it would help bring the standards of safety in them parts of the world up and help protect there children.

This is the Proposal (it is usually a good idea to post your proposal here on the forums since several of us do not have the time to sift through all those pages of proposals):



Just glossing over it now, I do not agree with a fair bit of the proposal. First of all, it should be the bus driver's duty- not the child's- to ensure that the child is wearing their seatbelt, because some of these children are too young to know better. If a child becomes a problem and refuses to comply then you give out warnings, but not because they don't wear the seatbelt. Do you really want to fault someone because they're too young to understand the dangers?

Second of all, I do not believe a bus driver should be held accountable for having a faulty bus- after all, some drivers get their buses handed to them, and if the provider doesn't give quality buses, then it's the provider's fault, not the driver. In such a case, the provider should be held accountable. In this scenario, you have the potential for a provider to continue providing faulty buses and do nothing about it since nothing will happen to them, just the drivers, which will be detrimental to the cause.

Therefore, I will not be supporting this proposal.


First off when my kids were young they were taught to buckle up before we went any where, it is a parental responsiblity to teach there kids this And when kids start school they are old enough to know that they are suppose to buckle up, it is for there safety.
Second My resolution says nothing about the mechanical status of the bus, only that if the bus driver didnt follow the rules concerning stopping at railroad crossing, turning on a red light or failing a background check then there would be consequences.

1. You would probably want to change that so that buses don't turn into the adjacent perpendicular lane...or something along those lines.

2. Many of these rules are common sense, and are enforced along with traffic rules. Nobody stops at a RR crossing during congestion, especially if they know that the train is active.

3. Seat belts for school buses have been brought up in the past and rejected, for safety reasons. If you get into a major accident, it is the bus driver's responsibility to make sure that everybody gets out of their seatbelts, and is not hurt in any way by them. This pertains mainly to the younger students. It is also the bus driver's responsibility to make sure that all seatbelts are fastened before driving away. All in all, with the beaurocratic mess, it just does not work.

Back in the day, on the school bus we got hit by a car that did not stop at a stop sign. It plowed right into the side going at least 25 kilometers an hour, and nobody was hurt, nor was the bus damaged. The car on the other hand...

4. What if children in some nations are home schooled? Or if they take internet classes exclusively?

It all comes down to the fact that this proposal is not an international issue and should be decided by individual countries as they see fit.

to be honest i am shocked at the negative response i have gotten from this, in many countrys there are laws requiribg us all to buckle up, yet on school buses there are no seat belts, I for 1 would feel a lot safer if I knew my children were buckled up on there way to school and that the driver was qualified to drive the bus in a safe manor.
:confused: :eek: :confused: :eek:

Don't get me wrong, Master Tom, I support rules that ensure our children's safety. Seatbelts are a common sense rule, but it's not accepted for many reasons, and I do not know the details of it, but I think I pretty much outlined their thinking.

Everything else...the background checks and traffic rules, are already enforced in most countries, as they should be. But I do not believe that this is an international issue.

First off when my kids were young they were taught to buckle up before we went any where, it is a parental responsiblity to teach there kids this And when kids start school they are old enough to know that they are suppose to buckle up, it is for there safety.

Okay, so I erred on the driver issue. My bad.

However, regarding children: yes, they're all taught that they should "buckle up", but just because they're taught does not mean that they understand it, at least to the point where you can be harsh with them. A six year old may still have to be reminded several times before he'll understand the importance of buckling up. Perhaps if this was coupled with education for early childhood then maybe I could accept that clause.

I agree with the Schoool Bus Safety Act. Children should be taught and should have the common sense that it is something they must do. Wear a seatbelt. Parents should teach their kids this at an early age so there is no rebellion against the protection. Background checks are very vital and that is key to enforce. I have seen instinces on the news where Bus Drivers keep driving with the kids on the bus as they travel far away from where they're supposed to be. This is a resolution that can be brought together with the participation of parents and employers. It is the childrens safety that we are all worried about and there is no sense trying to avoid that fact. If this turns into a resolution, I will be fighting to make sure that it is passed.

"Article 3: All school buses will be equiped with
seat belts"

This was in the auto safety proposal that I was trying to pass...and I still do not know what happened to my proposal :(

Not of international interest. I'd suggest proposing this as a daily event.

I support 100% of the content of the resolution (aside from the right-hand turn thing-- I don't want to get stuck behind a bus and be late for work!) but I reject it for the sole reason that if there ever was an area best left to local authorities, this is it.

We don't actually have school busses - everyone tends to walk to school.

So pass this, don't pass this. I am not that concerned :}

The one thing is - it really should be the responsibility of the drive to check the seat belts of the children. It's his bus, he is responsible for the children in his care, so it's his duty.

(OOC - all the air hosts and hostesses check that passangers are buckled in before take off, yet most of the passangers are adults who should know how to do it already. So if can apply to that, why not to children on a bus?)