Kids who are mentally challenged still ride the short bus to school. I mean, I’d figured that after all the jokes and stuff, they would have stopped doing that. Then after dropping Cassidy off this morning I realized that they still do, in fact, ride the short bus.
And I was reminded of all the times that I laughed at other people who were the butt of ‘short bus’ jokes when one of the kids that Cassidy LOVES gets off the short bus and I feel like I’ve shrunk to the size of a grain of sand. A grain of sand that somebody should have kicked hard into the nearest puddle of mud and left me there to drown in murky hell.
I am very sensative to people calling other’s ‘retarted’ or making fun of people who are mentally or physically handicapped. Especially because of my awsome nephew Ethan who, despite having a slight case of CP, is one of the funniest, upbeat and smartest little dude’s I know. Why I assumed that these kids didn’t actually ride the short bus anymore is beyond me. I guess I just figured that it would be cruel to add more ammo to throw at a group of kids who already have a lot stacked up against them.
Ben assured me that God would forgive me. But if you include the second piece of chocolate cake I ate last night ON TOP of all this… I’m not so sure.
In a society that is so hell bent on political correctness I don’t understand why the short buss is still around. I mean, I understand the need for a buss equipped for those with special needs, I am not saying THAT shouldn’t be around, but why is the buss still different in some way? Especially when the short busses don’t save anything montarily. They use the same gas, drive the same hours, and all that. It seems sort of backwards to me.
The shorter busses have the wider aisles for wheel chairs or walkers thus less seating (plus the lift). There’s also a much smaller special ed population than regular students…so I can imagine its more cost effective to have a few short busses on seperate routes than one big bus that accomadates for wheelchairs etc. that has to make ALL the routes.