OWENSBORO, KY (WFIE) – Owensboro Public School are teaching their students how to stay safe on a school bus, while celebrating the workers who keep them safe.

Students have a lot to worry about. Classes, homework, teachers, grades, but safety on a school bus shouldn’t be one. Owensboro Public School officials say that’s why School Bus Safety Week matters.

“We try to revisit the ridership rules, you know, staying in your seat, feat out of the aisles, how to respond if an emergency situation were to happen,” said Owensboro Public School Transportation Director Chris Gaddis. “They reeducate them on the exiting process of a school bus, whether it be out the normal door or out a rear entry or windows or through the roofs of the school buses we have now.”

School bus safety week appreciates all those who have a part to play in making sure students get safely from home to school. It begins with the team that maintains the buses, like head technician Brian Shocklee.

“We take pride in everything,” Shocklee said. “When it rolls out of here that the bus is ready to roll and try to make sure it makes it back on the lot safely without breaking down.”

And ends with the team that maintains the students, like school bus driver Stacey Duncan.

“Once you show them who’s boss a few times they usually fall in line,” Duncan said.

Bus drivers have a unique roll in the school system. They’re the first person that the kids see in the morning and the last that they see at the end of the day.

There’s a whole lot that goes into being a bus driver, a whole lot of responsibility, not only on our drivers but on our students as well,” said Gaddis.

According to Gaddis, while school bus safety gets highlighted this week, it’s something that needs to be remembered year round.

“We not only practice this this week, there are four different times during the year that we do emergency evacuations and so forth,” Gaddis said.

After all, riding on a school bus shouldn’t be something to worry about.

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