By Louise Pitts | Jemison Elementary School

In October, schools around the nation celebrated Bus Safety Week. During that week, most schools emphasized that cars need to stop as students load and unload buses and emphasized student safety while riding and loading buses.
Chilton County schools also stressed these precautions during that designated week. However, employees of all Chilton County schools know the importance of bus safety not only for that one week but for all 36 weeks that students are in school. Two young Jemison Elementary School students realized last week that their safety is important to all school employees who touch their lives.
A 6-year-old boy and his 5-year-old sister rode the bus home. Upon arriving at their destination, their bus driver, Misty Smith, realized no one was home. The boy told Smith they were to crawl through the bedroom window and wait for their parents to come home.
Smith told them to remain on the bus. When she finished her route, Smith went back to these students’ home. After turning off the bus and securing it, she went to the door of the trailer and tried to get someone to answer. With no success, she loaded the students back on the bus and radioed the bus shop to talk with Chilton County Bus Supervisor Joe Dennis, who then called Jemison Elementary School.
Sherry Fancher, Jemison Elementary School assistant principal, and I usually stay at school until 4:30 p.m., when all Jemison Elementary School buses have completed their routes. On this particular day, Ms. Fancher and I were traveling back from a conference in South Alabama.  In our absence, math coach Cheryl Thompson was graciously covering the phones in the office after school was out.
Dennis reached Thompson, and she called my cell phone. I told her to tell Dennis to have Smith bring the students back to school. Thompson informed me that she had an appointment and would have to leave at 4:30. Therefore, I called school secretary Marilyn Scoggins and asked her if she could go back to school, wait for the students and try to reach their parents. Scoggins agreed to do this.
I spoke to Dennis by phone and told him that Fancher and I were well south of Montgomery on Interstate 65 but that Scoggins would meet the students at the school and wait with them until their parents arrived. Dennis took it upon himself to head to the school and to wait with Scoggins and the students so they would not be alone at the school.
The mother finally arrived at 5:45 p.m. Scoggins and Dennis made it clear to the mother that someone needed to be at home when the children arrived or that she needed to make arrangements for them to go to a relative’s or friend’s home in the afternoon. After the students and their mother left, Dennis and Scoggins phoned Ms. Fancher and I to let us know the students had been safely returned to their mother.
The thoughts of what could have happened to two young children left unattended are a frightening topic to be pondered. Without the bus driver, Misty Smith, being concerned for her passengers, these two young students would have been home alone for a couple of hours.
Smith, Thompson, Scoggins, and Dennis went beyond the call of duty to ensure the two young children were safe. None of these four people were paid extra for their extended work hours. None of these people did what they did for pay. They did it for the safety of students and without complaint.
This is what education is: caring for the whole child. The Chilton County school system is blessed to have such concerned and caring employees, and these two students are blessed to have crossed paths with these employees.
Bus safety is more than just making sure cars stop for the bus flag or that students safely load and unload the bus. Bus safety is about delivering the children safely to school and safely back home.
Misty Smith, Cheryl Thompson, Marilyn Scoggins, and Joe Dennis fully believe this. They not only talk the talk but they walk the walk.

– Louise Pitts is the principal at Jemison Elementary School.