To the elementary schools of Halifax:
STOP using public transit as a means to haul your kids around the city!
I’m talking about the morning of Friday November 4th where well over 40 kids and approximately 7 chaperones piled onto the #7 Robie on the stop on Leeds Street.
Now I understand that some daycares around the city occasionally use public transportation to cart around the few kids they take care of. Which is fine with me because it’s usually about 6 to 10 kids. But public schools are provided with yearly budgets from the schoolboard to be used for things like field trips and this budget is usually used toward renting a bus!
There is something seriously wrong with packing more children onto a bus than there are seats, making some kids stand, giving guilty looks to passengers who stayed seated, and joking with people struggling to get out the doors past the mob of grubby-handed 6 year olds that “this must be a fun way to start your morning.” Loading that many kids onto ONE bus is not only unsafe but it’s really fucking annoying for the rest of us who rely on public transportation to get to work. The bus was completely full and actually had to drive past people waiting oustide (in the rain, I might add). Please get it through your skulls that people actually were late for work, school, or other engagements because you were too cheap to rent a fucking school bus.
I hope the kids had fun at the museum, but I hope whoever was in charge of planning this little excursion reads this. Take into consideration the greater good of the people in the city when deciding whether or not you want to save your school a few dollars. —Thanks For Wiping Your Booger Fingers On Me, Little Girl
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2011.
#7 Bus? I hope these chaperons were the pimp daddies and crack whores who spawned this ilk. These parents (using the term very loose here) are at home while the system raises their ne’er do-wells.
Sweet geezuz, wonder who paid the fare?
agreed. Too many people see the greater HRM as their own private daycare.
Koda that response made no sense.
It was an elementary school trip to the museum. So any parent that sends their kid to school is either a pimp daddy, or crack whore?
My kid was there, and had a great time. It’s not up to the parents to decide what method of transportation is used to take the classes on these trips.
I was always under the impression that if a class wanted to take students on an organized field trip that required transportation, that they HAD to take a school bus for liability reasons, not public transit. Does anyone know if this is correct?
No, there is NOT a budget to rent school buses for field trips. Students often have to pay for the bus themselves. In this case, taking Metro Transit was likely the cheaper option, and that’s why they did it.
I bet the school didn’t know that MT offers Charters, as well Zink, White’s Transit and Stock, they all offer Charters, why would you take up public transit like that!
Or again, why charter ANYTHING when they can just take a school bus? I would think it wouldn’t be any harder than calling the appropriate school bus depot that services the school in question and asking to book the use of a bus for “X” amount of students for a pick up and delivery, to and from the school and museum. Am I out to lunch on this? The only cost that should be involved is the price of admission to the museum, (if there is one for school kids)
I see nothing wrong with a class trip taking a public bus. Environmentally, fiscally and socially I think the students and teachers made the right decision using Metro Transit. They were travelling from a site with a bus stop, to a site with a bus stop.
The only improvement I would suggest is perhaps call Metro Transit beforehand to give them an opportunity to put an accordian on the route.
If this group paid fare (exactly like you complainers) then you really need to stfu, and stay off public transit.
it should be … and even though parents aren’t the ones to decide, you would think the school board would divulge just how they plan on getting to and fro.
unless you really just don’t give a shit since the kids aren’t on ‘your time’ while they’re at school….
I realize its public transit and all that lovely stuff but come on school board.
Give the schools a budget to work with for these trips.
If its a small group its not so bad but a full class?
Thats when they need to book a bus rather than interfer with other peoples lives who use transit.
When did the school board get so cheap that schools need to use metro transit for some field trips?
Hating on kids getting out and not swarming people? Go buy your own fuckin bus you twit.
If you people knew how much money the gov’t is throwing at Francophone school boards, you’d burn down Parliament.
OB, maybe they were returning them to the orphanage. Maybe the parents finally realized: a) get stuck with shitty minivan and kids, or b) get the new 2012 A7 and a 60″ TV.
Stock transport is not owned by HRSB, and has restrictions on hours you can use them as they are needed to bring and take kids from home to school. Buses are a huge cost (some up to $400) and there is no budget for school trips – why do you think you pay 10 bucks… part admission, part bus. Nothing extra is free – and trips are extra.
Op, I checked my child’s backpack and there was a notice about a trip to the discovery centre. Looks like there’s another group coming through to ruin your day.