A pair of St. Louis children were robbed at gunpoint while waiting for their school bus. One was beaten because he had nothing to give the robbers. http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=393036
I always worried about things like that as a kid. My bus stop was at the intersection of the interstate and a 4-lane highway next to a hotel. Really.
wow what do people think? I live about an hour south of STL, very small town. I just can't imagine someone robbing young teens, I mean how much did they really think the poor kids had? Lunch money for heavens sake...
Perhaps I missed something, but were there adults supervising the area? I am always baffled at how willing parents are to allow their child to wait at a bus stop without supervision simply because it is for "school". Supervision isn't simply to keep children from causing trouble, it is to protect them from people like these. Could this still happen even if parents are around? OF COURSE! But the chances are slim in comparison.
I wasn't supervised as a child. My parents had to go to work. It was up to us to make it to the bus on time. If we didn't make it, we had to go next door and wake up my grandmother to take us. She didn't appreciate that.
Yep. That's how it was for me. Only it wasn't 'cause mom was at work: it was because she was physically incapable of walking up the insane hill which our stop was at the peek. Our district doesn't bus unless you live more than 3 miles from school. Most parents can't walk with their children (because of work) and traffic backs up about a mile from the building. So children either walk the whole way without an adult or at least the last mile. In bigger cities, parents usually have to leave for work by 7am to make it to work on time due to traffic. There's no way to stand at the bus stop at 7:30/8:00.
I am of the mindset that as parents we NEED to make our children priority over work in order to protect them. If this means pulling together with other parents or even paying somebody we know to watch our children at the bus stop, then so be it. Parents, in general, have allowed their lifestyle to take priority over their children. Granted, there will always be exceptions, like illness, and our children will be in public without supervision at some point. But five days a week, 35-40 weeks out of the year average just doesn't cut it in my book. That is too many times to allow children to stand around being prey to vultures.
I agree. That's why we're homeschoolers. But that is not the prevailing mentality in society. It's just like parents who feel they must send their children to school when common sense dictates otherwise (e.g. when the weather is dangerous but school doesn't cancel). Parents in our culture are raised to think their children are not their own. Matter of fact, our school district, as part of Kindergarten orientation, encourages parents to "cut the strings" by letting their child walk to school alone. It's a huge deal. Parents are shamed into thinking they are too overprotective if they walk them to school. On the other hand, these kiddos were 12 and 13. I think that's plenty old enough to wait for a bus alone. (Assuming you don't live in a neighborhood where that's a bad idea... like in this story).
Another thought: We live in a disconnected culture. We're completely cut off from our neighbors and see our friends only in virtual settings. Most parents wouldn't have anyone they could trust to see their child safely to/from school. I'm absolutely not saying it's right, just that it is.
Agree with this- although am horrified at the school encouraging 'cutting the strings'. Ugh. We just bought 3rd grade sci texts. They are calif. edition. While flipping through, there is a couple of pages in the back about what to do if you are home alone- this is for 8-9 year olds!! OTOH, I remember friends babysitting when they were 10-11 back when I was a kid. And I think sometimes we are encouraged to forget that kids tend to grow better when they are given SOME responsibility. We had to walk about 1/2-3/4 of a mile to school when I was in 1st grade, with no supervision. These days, our bus wouldn't even drop my 9yo at the end of my driveway (we are very rural) unless we were standing outside. Benjamin Franklin was apprenticed to work when he was 12. Another man (I forget his name at the moment) became captain of a warship at the same age. I'm sure neither one had a lot of coddling just because they were 'kids'. Back to the original posting though- I find it horrifying. Desperate times breed desperate measures- and you have to be desperate to mug kids.
