The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation is back to school this week , with students with last names ‘A’ through ‘J’ reporting Monday and Tuesday, and ‘K’ through ‘Z’ Wednesday and Thursday.
All students will be in school on Friday. This is schedule has been corrected; the original post had errors in the schedule.
The ISP has released a useful graphic and reminder of when it’s the motorists’ job to stop for a school bus — assuming the bus is stopped with red flashing ‘STOP’ arm extended.
Essentially the only time a motorist doesn’t have to stop is when the bus is on the other side of a divided highway — with either a barrier or unpaved greenspace. Then drivers can proceed with caution.
With two-lane roadways and multilane roadways, motorists must stop for school buses with an extended ‘STOP’ arm.
Motorists who pass a legal STOP arm can face fines of between $1,000 and $10,000 in Indiana, $500 in Kentucky and Illinois. Jail time is also included.
Regarding children waiting for the bus — they should stand six feet away from the curb while waiting for the bus to arrive, and only approach the bus when the doors open after it comes to a complete stop.
As always, children should look both ways before crossing and be extra careful when crossing in front of the bus in case a motorist didn’t stop
Other suggestions include leaving the home on time to avoid having to run to the bus stop, and packing everything they need into a backpack so nothing can be dropped.
At least one high visibility piece of material can also improve safety, as can older kids walking in groups and very young children being accompanied by an adult.
If your child must walk in the street, walk single file, face traffic and stay as close to the edge of the road as possible.
Additional safety tips for children can be found here
Here is the bust safety web page for motorists
Support independent journalism today. You rely on WNIN to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Give to grow our local reporting today. Donate now.