Oh good grief....seriously??

United States
February 3, 2009 11:45pm CST
I just heard a story on the news that, in an attempt to cut corners on their budget, one school district in Denver, Colorado is considering making all of the middle schools and high schools start at the same time so they can put all of them on the same bus. And parents are having...a....fit! How can they possibly THINK of putting 7th graders on the same bus as 12th graders?!?!? I came from a very small community where everyone was in the same building, Kindergarten through 12th grade. In the building the elementary school was in one wing, middle school in another and high school in still another but on the bus everyone from 5 years old to 18 were together. The parents in this school district are worried that the high school students will bully the middle school students but I can speak from personal experience, that doesn't happen. The high school students who ride the bus (the ones who don't drive) sit with their friends, talk with their friends and, for the most part, ignore the younger kids. The younger kids sit with their friends, talk with their friends and, for the most part, ignore the older kids. Speaking from personal experience, these parents are over-reacting... HUGELY. But what about you? Do you think it's horrible to put middle school and high school students on the same bus?
1 response
loveyevi
@loveyevi (513)
• United States
4 Feb 09
I think you are right that the parents are overreacting, and for the most part do not believe putting all kids on the same bus would create any huge problems. I do not think that highschoolers are going to worry themselves with bullying younger kids on the bus. There are also many places where kids of all ages hang out and that does not seem to cause many problems. If I were a parent the only concern I would have is putting much much younger kids on a bus with highschoolers because of what the younger kids may over hear the older ones talking about. Even with highschoolers and middle schoolers, the younger ones may be exposed to things that are inappopriate to their age level. All in all though, I think that schools should try to conserve their budgets for more important things like a childs actual education.