From: "Andy" <as-AT-spelthorne.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 09:07:20 +0000
Subject: Re: Skool's Out



> 
> i know socialization can be a problem with the home-schooled and my friend
> already has her little boy in a "play group" with the kids of some women
> she met at lamaze class, so they are even the same age.  she is going to
> make sure that he meets lots of other kids.
> one of the problems she has with schools are the school buses.  her
> daughter gets driven to school every day, but still has to ride the bus
> when they go on "outings".  we can't figure out why if there are LAWS to
> make people wear a seatbelt in a car, there are NO seatbelts on the school
> buses.  
> 

You need a massive campaign of public opinion and deaths regrettably. 
We had a couple of cases of school buses on trips being involved in 
horrendous accidents, with many avoidable deaths.  They then passed 
the LAW to make seatbelts compulsory in coaches/school buses.

But beware: they often fit only a  lap belt in these buses, and if 
the child doesn't put it across the' hip bone', in a bad accident, 
the kids flies forward, bent at the waist and  it can press through 
the stomach and damage the spinal cord. There's a fair few kids in 
wheelchairs today because of these belts [an old student of mine is a 
doctor in a spinal injuries unit whose unit helped bring out a TV 
prog a couple of years ago about this].
>AS