travis' brain dump

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MARIETTA, Ga.

Parents are criticizing Marietta school officials after video of a chaotic school bus ride was posted on YouTube.
The incident began last Friday, when school officials said the driver pulled over to write up students who were being unruly.
A cell phone camera captured students on the bus getting more upset, after the students claimed the bus driver refused to let them off.

The students can be seen and heard on the video screaming for help. Students are also seen jumping off the bus through the emergency exit.
One of those students, DeBrandon Harris, said he was suspended from school and cannot return until further notice.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I was fearing for my life,” Harris said.

But the Marietta High School student and his mother believe that he’s being made a scapegoat for the other students.

“This doesn’t look good on my college application,” Harris said.
Thomas Algarin, the communications director for Marietta city schools, told CBS 46 News Monday that this was the bus driver’s first solo run with these students. It may also be her last. The driver is being removed from her duties pending an investigation.
When the driver finally stopped in a shopping center parking lot, furious parents confronted her.

Susan Caudill said she talked to her son while he was stuck on the bus.
“If you had heard what I heard on the phone, including ‘I’m being kidnapped,’ it would take some years off your life,” Caudill said.

Another parent, Jerrea Harris watched the video and said she never wants to see anything like this again.
“This is unbelievable. I’m very concerned,” Harris said.

The video has been removed from YouTube.

School officials did not release the bus driver’s name. They said the investigation is ongoing.

Officials said they will talk to all of the students who were on the bus.
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So what you’re telling me is that the bus driver who is responsible for the children pulled over the bus because there were children on it that needed to be written up immediately and upon doing so wouldn’t allow students to get off the bus because it was not their appropriate stop and/or could have been a dangerous location (traffic, etc) to allow children off… right?

I’m sorry but “I was fearing for my life” is about the absolute dumbest thing I’ve ever read in relation to a story like this. Sorry kid, no amount of college is going to help you if you seriously think your life was in danger because a school bus full of loud crazy kids is pulled over while the bus driver writes some of them up. You are an idiot and your parents probably are too.
Have we really become this mellow dramatic? This is absolutely pathetic. Both parents and students alike are a bunch of big whiney babies. If my child came home and gave me a tale like this I would look at her like she was crazy then if she had actually gotten off the bus, would be grounded until the end of time.

I mean there are a few items worth noting that you can honestly say “I was fearing for my life” when talking about a school bus incident.

a) someone has a weapon and is pointing at you.
b) someone is beating you to a bloody pulp in the back of the bus.
c) the bus has been involved in an accident and there are massive injuries all around you.

If there was that much chaos on the bus that the driver could not control it, she had every right and responsibility to pull it over to try to address the situation. A chaotic school bus is dangerous because it is distracting to the driver. Pulling it over was the safest action to take and keeping the children on the bus rather than let them off was in accordance to that action. I
seriously don’t think she should be blamed for anything other than trying to take responsibility for a bunch of out of control kids. If anything the parents should be punishing their kids… then again with things the way they are these days any form of “punishment” is considered to be abuse.

I can tell you what. If this happened to me growing up I would have been in some serious crap if I had anything to do with making the situation worse or even more so if I had gotten off that bus if I was in no real danger. I think some parents these days need to have their butts handed to them for immediately siding with their ‘perfect little children’ and not thinking for a minute that they might be the cause of the problems.

Now, keep in mind I’m going off the details handed me by this new article, so based on them, that is how I feel. If the situation was different somehow it may change my opinion, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t need adjusting.

Saying that it’s been a busy couple of weeks I think would be an understatement. After the DNC died down here the real fun began at him. Completion of that blasted downstairs family room. If I didn’t have a shaved head, I would pull out my hair. 🙂

The good news is. It’s almost done. We texture and paint this weekend then get new carpet down there on Monday. YAY! I’m running about a week behind however due to the lack of a window showing up last week so I’m a little irritated there but everything else is falling into place. Amanda has been super efficient at sanding and cleanup – I honestly don’t know how we would be as close to finished if she wasn’t able to knock out most of that during the day while I am working. We have just about everything to complete the room except the materials to build the swinging book case and hardwood floor the stairs… I’ll get to that maybe sometime after the new kiddo’s room is done as it’s not really that urgent. I’ve got to switch gears so I can get Arwen moved downstairs and get some much needed cleanup work done in her old room/baby’s new room before he gets here. It’s mainly left-overs from when we pulled the chimney that ran through her room for the old fireplace out but there are some other little things which definitely need attention up there. *NOTHING* in comparison to what we just did downstairs though… wow. I’m taking a year off fromanything major after this is done, lol.

I’ve updated a couple of pictures over in the photo gallery from the during portion of the project so there are some new progress shots. Hopefully I’ll have the finished section up before the end of next week. I think that will primarily depend on how swamped we are with cleaning. Once this room is done, it’s top to bottom all over the house to get all the plaster dust out of everything… I hate that stuff. No matter how much you do to prevent it from spreading, it finds a way to land on EVERYTHING! I’m seriously going to have to clean out every piece of electronic equipment in the house, lol. It’s a good thing I own a compressor.

Other than that, life is good. I completed round one of my workout plan with some really nice results, now its time for round two but I need to definitely wait until after we’re done with this room. Trying to balance in a workout schedule alongside this project just doesn’t work. Just trying to get things taken care of before the baby arrives is the biggest challenge. Only about another 5-6 weeks and the whole house will be turned upside down yet again…. I hope we’ll be able to maintain our sanity. 🙂

Well, that’s my little update for now. I needed to post something up besides a rant… LOL