Dear Editor:

The time has come to speak from the heart about a sensitive subject.

This is one topic I can speak from with experience and with sadness.

In Grade 7, I was an Osoyoos honour roll student showing great promise and chose to go to Southern Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) in Oliver with the idea that I might get a slightly better education that would help with my post secondary studies.

I rode the bus from Osoyoos to Oliver every school day for two years and can speak with great experience about the busing situation that has become a focal point during discussions about the possible closure of Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS).

The first important thing to note is that when a bus is full of children, the drivers most important job is to make sure he or she is focused on the safety of the kids.

The drivers’ eyes should mostly be on the road and the hazards ahead.

There is very little time to deal with the kids and the chaos that often takes place.

It’s a fact there are more kids on a full school bus than in any classroom.

This means even if the driver devoted all of his or her time to managing the kids, it would be overwhelming.

Another fact is there are no seatbelts on school buses, so the children do move around during travel.

The seats on school buses are designed to be tall in case of a crash, but they do pose a problem when it comes to inappropriate activity as the kids can screen themselves from the driver.

One of the key reasons a bus trip to school is potentially troublesome is because children can become very restless very quickly.

I speak from years of experience when I say the actual trip from Osoyoos to Oliver isn’t 40 minutes as stated by the school board, but more than one hour.

Here are some disturbing and sad truths about hormonal teenage kids riding together on a long, boring, unsupervised bus ride.

When I was a teenager, word had gotten around that a couple of smart kids from Osoyoos were coming to SOSS and the they would be threatened to fight once they arrived.

We were kids who did well in the classroom, but were not really tough, so the bullying threats were taken seriously.

The worst of the bullies were avoided all day and when the bell rang, we rushed to the safety of our bus home to avoid the beating we were sure was coming our way.

Ten minutes later our fears were realized as those same bullies boarded our bus.

They left us with bruises on our legs and our middle body because they were smart enough to know it would be hard to get into trouble if we were not bruised in the face or our arms.

We chose to tough it out and hoped at some point they would stop.

Experienced bullies know that on a long bus ride they can wait for the right time to act out against you.

The seats are tall and offer good visual protection from the driver.

If you let your guard down 15 or 20 minutes into the trip to study or do homework, it becomes a great time for bullies to strike and call you nasty names, knock your books over or punch you in the legs while you gather you belongings.

This actually happened to me and the longer the bus ride, the more trouble bullies can get into.

One might say get closer to the driver and avoid the problems at the back of the bus, but this is not always possible when you need to stay an extra five minutes with your teacher to talk about a test or homework or even simply go to the bathroom.

Because everyone races for the front seats, there always comes a time when you have to ride the back of the bus.

Even if you are a great kid, the peer pressure becomes overwhelming to get involved in questionable activities to avoid being bullied.

Putting a bunch of hormonal teenage kids with too much unsupervised time on their hands and some tall seats to hide behind led to numerous problems throughout my many years riding on the bus.

The inappropriate touching and groping were all too common and with different age groups, the abuse can and has happened to boys as well as girls.

I repeat the lengthy, unsupervised, overpopulated bus rides are not a good setting for any child.

I know I will not have my children subjected to this and parents should really see this for what it actually is.

I was fortunate to switch back to Osoyoos in Grade 10 and enjoy having a school close to my home to avoid the terrible bus ride to Oliver.

I found the academics to be better in Osoyoos as the school is smaller and no one falls through the cracks. I was able to complete an apprenticeship program in Grade 11 and that program has helped me to do what I do very well to this day.

It’s not about course selection for every kid in school. Sometimes it’s about how you can contribute to your community and how your community can give back to you.

Something that is impossible if you can’t be in school in the same town where you live.

The trustees with School District 53 were very reluctant to provide details about the costs of busing and other issues related about having to spend so much time on the bus, but I feel this is a crucial issue they should consider when making their final decision on whether or not to close our secondary school in Osoyoos.

Thank you for allowing me the space to talk about this very important issue in our community.

J.F. Launier

Osoyoos, B.C.