Parents Create Human Barrier to Protect
Children While Crossing

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. (May 2, 2007) — In an effort to curb the dangerous habits of drivers in the area, parents of students from Shippensburg Area School District, Pa., formed a human chain to protect their children while crossing Route 11 to reach their bus stop.

"This has been a problem for six years," said Michelle Kaufman, a mother of one of the kindergartners who catch the bus at the problematic stop. "There was no crosswalk for the children. It was in the middle of very heavy traffic with no stop light."

For two and half months, between six and eight parents from a development on the other side of the highway would act as a barrier to alert drivers that when a school bus stops to pick up students, they are also mandated to hit the brakes. For some parents, the fight to change the position of the bus stop has been an on-going battle.

"The schools said it wasn’t their problem and to contact the transportation department," said Angie Smith, who’s second grade son has had to deal with the problem for three years. "It turned into a big argument with the transportation department during the last school year. The director would hang up on me or not return my calls. They said it was impossible to move the stop to inside the development."

Nicole Weber, who has only been the transportation director for Shippensburg since the middle of last fall, alerted the state police to the situation, but received the same response many parents did.

"They said it was during their shift change, making it difficult to station an officer there," said Weber.

Some parents began writing down the license plate numbers of drivers who passed the school bus, but were told by the troopers that a physical identification of the driver was needed to file charges. This new challenge led a few parents to begin following some violators.

"I followed a car that passed the bus into the Wal-Mart parking lot and parked in front of them until they got back into their car so I could give the police a description of them," said Smith.

In a last ditch effort before one of the children was injured, Kaufman contacted the local paper, The Sentinel. According to Kaufman, within 48 hours an officer was stationed at the bus stop and the school district decided to move the stop to an area within the development starting Monday, April 30.

"The new stop is wonderful. We don’t have to stress about someone hitting our kids," said Smith.