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coolbuskid
Senior Member
51 Posts |
 Posted - 03/16/2018 : 12:50:41 PM
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Southwestern Ontario Student Transportation Services, a bus company that provides transportation to schools in Ontario, Canada, has reportedly insisted that no bags or cases be brought onto any of the buses unless those items can fit underneath the seats. This has caused some teachers and parents to become irate, blaming the school board and the bus company for allowing music students to be unable to bring instruments home to practice.
Although their frustrations are understandable, a reality is that many of these oddly-shaped instrument cases and wide athletic bags don't fit well on buses that weren't designed to handle cargo. Cases and bags that can't fit down the bus aisle must be lifted up and over the seats, and that's hard unless you're tall enough and strong enough to do it. The baggage must necessarily take part or all of a seat or two seats, which means fewer seats on a bus that may already be filled to capacity. Then there's the problem of students struggling to move the items up and down the aisle while the bus may be holding up traffic, and the bus driver is sometimes required to assist a child with the large item. It's simply unreasonable to expect a small child to be carrying a fragile and oddly-shaped instrument as is shown in the article onto a crowded bus twice a day.
Students who need special transportation accommodations should be provided with a bus that has features such as a wheelchair lift and floor space in the back of the bus where the seats have been removed and tie-down hooks have been installed so that large items can be stored safely there. Other options include underside storage or a cargo van.
http://www.classicfm.com/music-news/school-bus-instruments-policy/
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Ontario bus company boots students with large item
