Why not save yoursself and your chlidren. Drive them to school.. Maybe you could even find someone to carpool with. We did it with four families. You only drove one week a month. Just because they have bus service, does not mean you have to use it. With all the back and forth about the busses and routes last year, as a parent, I would much prefer to be in control of my childs time immediately before school. It set's the tone for the rest of the day. Leave the busses to the rabble rousers.

I hear what you're saying, Mary Anne. Although I also wonder if things have changed since the '80s. I think the rules are much stricter and there's no tolerance for such behavior.

I also wonder if the experience is gender dependent. Do boys have an easier time than girls? My oldest son has been riding the bus since 2007 with no complications or concern ... or is he just not telling me? ;)

I pay taxes and feel we should be able to take advantage of this offered transportation. I also believe it's an important part of growing up - learning to deal with situations like I did. I suppose the bus isn't the only place where things like this could happen. There were certain 'secluded' spots on the playground at Vera Cruz School where this sort of activity occurred as well.

I guess the bottom line is that we need to keep open communication with our kids and address any concerns as they arise. I know some of our current First Student bus drivers ... unlike 'Jeff' they don't put up with much. ;)

The surest way to raise kids who are incapable of handling themselves is to 'protect' them from everything.

Help them deal with problems sure, but putting them in a bubble is a recipe for disaster.

The "education" and ridicule can and will happen wherever kids are. I rode the bus my entire grade school career from 1990 thru 2003 and nothing had changed much from Jenae's story. I remember quite clearly the taunts and harassment I received. It lessened a little as I got older but even as a high school senior (without a car to drive) I was harassed by younger troublemakers occasionally. My parents both had to be at work early and we lived in the country so being driven in or walking weren't options. School social life was hard enough without sandwhiching it between dreaded bus rides.

You and the other parents can each volunteer to ride the bus I know some PTA's who petitioned their school district. Some school districts even hire people to be bus chaperones.

Mary Anne - some points you have I agree with but mostly I must respectfully disagree. By never allowing your children to "grow" outside of your eyes, they will be coddled and thereby not realizing their full potential. A parent always being there is not a good thing. You seem to want to become their friend and that is a difficult path. Once you are on it, your parental guidance becomes blurred.

They need to fall, be bruised, get back up and hopeful but doubtful that they will come to you with their problems. Then you can fix it. However, always being with them is a suffocating practice that you need to release. You can possibly do more harm than good by being “too much” of a Mom.

There will be disasters, crying, screaming and laughter. They will love you more if you let them go. Let them walk on their own. They have to learn. You must have faith in them to stand their ground and become the young adults that our society needs. Good luck. Peace.

Well lucky you!! Mary Anne, you have the time to drive your kiddies to school and pick them up everyday! What a charmed life you must lead! Get real! In most families both parents work and cannot drive their children to school on a daily basis, so please stop making them feel sub parental! And as a past driver for stsd most drivers run a pretty tight ship, yes things happen from time to time, but as a whole the busses are pretty darn safe!!

@Mary Anne - I meant no disrepect & I apologize if it seemed that way. I am happy for you to have such a wonderful family. Peace.

@slyfox no apology needed. This is an open forum and we are all welcome to say what we want. The world will always agree to disagree, however it is always best if we at least know the facts.

I always found bus rides to be extremely... uneventful. And I was the first bus stop in the morning and the last bus stop in the afternoon. Talk about a giant snooze fest. I couldn't wait to get my license so I could get home 45 minutes earlier.

My parents worked and could not possibly drive four children to three different schools. And we never asked them to. We always thought it was embarrassing to have mom or dad drop us off -- anywhere! Drop us off at school? AGH! Please, no!

I see parents lined up around the block at Nazareth Area High School. That was never the case when I was in high school. Sure, there were the few cases -- but it was not the norm.

Is the bus really that evil? I was not anti-social, but I also was not the bouncing social butterfly... I made it off the bus unscathed. I don't have a single war story -- and that was not quite 10 years ago. I do not understand this need to drive your kids to school.

“I do not understand this need to drive your kids to school.” But yet when you got your license you were driving yourself to school???. I don't know what goes on in Nazareth School District but in East Penn parents and students are left stranded for hours at bus stops and schools waiting to be picked up. I lost track of all the times my child was late to school. For all the hours I stood around at the bus stop waiting I could have saved myself a lot of time and grief and just drove them back & forth myself. In the six years my child has been riding the bus they have been a witness to a kid dropping his pants(showed his willie to everyone), kids being punched in the nose(bloody nose) punched in the head and endless bullying. Some buses may be trouble free but others are not. I believe Mary Anne was merely offering an alternative option to busing And she is right, it sets the tone for parents & children for the rest of the day. There's nothing that says”have a nice day” like starting your day totally drenched because you had to stand in the pouring rain or stand in the freezing cold and snowy road waiting for a school bus that was 30-45 min. late. Better yet, try calling the bus co. to find out where they are, good luck with that!

My childrens experience on their particular bus in the EPSD has been/is harrowing. Suffice it to say at least 2 kids were permanently kicked off the bus for abhorent, racist & profane behavior.

i never had a problem on the bus went to 3 different schools growing up all on busses
great idea all the moms and dads take your kids to school hence no school taxes for empty buses i will vote for that

One comment I would like to make. If, for whatever reason, you opt to drive your child to school and pick them up in the afternoon, please, please, let the transportation department of the school district if not the bus company know this ahead of time. A roster is made at the beginning of school listing ALL The children assigned to the bus, and usually less than 2/3rds of those actually ride the bus, but the bus 'still' has to stop for them until it is reported to the transportation department that a minimum of 2 weeks have passed with no kid on the bus to have them removed. Although it is up to the driver to report this, my child had a driver last year that was so paranoid about getting written up for some imaginary infraction that she 'reported nothing' to stay off the radar and the bus made approximately 4 or 5 stops each day where no children got on or off 'just in case she was followed' by the depot manager. If you let them know in advance, maybe those 45 minute rides Mallory remarked about could be cut down to 25-30. Besides, it's just common courtesy. Would you want your child waiting in the cold while the bus sits at a stop that has 'no' kids actually getting on, but 4 kids on paper?

Why would a school district assume that a child is riding the bus? It seems to me that it would be up to the district to verify who and where kids need to be picked up and schedlule accordingly rather that assume every kid will be on the bus and then change it two weeks later. Thats just plain stupid

@knitted in the womb....I cannot begin to imagine what propaganda you are reading. Oh yes, let's not have saftey devices because the freakin brats on the bus will hit each other with them. Who the hell is raising these kids???? I have not read one positive thing on this thread about East Penn. Also, why would you be so stupid as to wait 40 to 70 minutes (I assume you did not just leave a six year old at the bus stop). Get in the car and drive your child. Go into your school admin ofc and find out what the hell is going on. Don't stop until you have an answer. The only way any of this is ever going to be solved is for parents to step up to the district, and step up to the kids. If there is a bully on the bus, find out who it is and demand that the parent do something to stop it. IF not, sit on that bus with that kid and give him a dose of his own medicine. Maybe if parents would stop being so PC things might be different. I am so glad my husband and I opted to do without for years so I could stay home and raise our children and send them to private schools.

Here are some facts for all of you to digest. We live in Brandywine Village. We had the BAD experience, months ago (while school was in session) to walk early 8 AM or so, while kids were being driven to school. There was gridlock Northbound down Willow Lane; turning W onto Sauerkraut was taking forever; traffic was backed up to Brookside Rd. on Sauerkraut W bound; Sauerkraut up at Mill Creek was also bumper to bumper. We stood at the school entrance on Sauerkraut and could not believe the SUV's and mini-vans polluting our air, blocking traffic and generally being a health hazard...all to get their kids to school. The very people who complain about lack of crosswalks or traffic signals are the very ones who will run over anyone else's kids at an intersection.

hey could get through the parental gridlock, had virtually no one on them. Perhaps 2 or 3 kids that we could see.

With gas @ $4/gal., why run empty buses?

Since my above message was incomplete...Buses were virtually empty. And firetrucks have a real problem with the gridlock if they are called. Parents, please remember that having publically paid-for transportation service to school is a priviledge. And I am not one for paying for empty buses. Start walking, kids! Get fit along the way.

@Gramma24, don't be rediculous. I hold no one in contempt for the choices they make. As for the rest of your comments I don't see how they apply to anything I said, other that notify the school that your kids are not going to be on the bus. Brush the chip off your sholder.

By the way, I drove my kids because when the law was passed in the 70's that school dristricts had to bus non public school kids, the Allentown School District stopped busing all kids. That has since changed.