SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Students at Aspen Elementary in South Jordan took their learning outside the classroom, getting hands-on lessons in how to safely ride the school bus and cross the street.
The training gave students a chance to practice everything from boarding and exiting a bus to safely crossing the roadway and responding during an emergency. At the heart of training is Jordan School District bus driver Gabbie Coy, who works to make sure the students she transports feel both safe and comfortable.
Along with creating that sense of community comes a serious responsibility: teaching children how to stay safe around buses and traffic.
"I see a lot of kids nowadays not looking both ways when they cross the street, and they just walk right through. And I want kids to pause, and I want them to check both ways, because not everybody's paying attention when they're driving down the road," Coy said.
In a world full of distracted driving, Jordan School District transportation trainer Lacey Paschall said the district wanted to bring back in-person training after the COVID-19 pandemic. One concern was students not consistently looking both ways or watching for a bus driver’s signal before crossing.
“I think it gives them an opportunity to see, ‘Oh, this is a little bit harder than I thought,’” Paschall said. “Getting them to actually go out and do it, it’s going to stick in their memories a little bit better.”
For Coy, those lessons reflect the responsibility school bus drivers take on every day.
“We get to carry this precious cargo,” Coy said. “It is our job to look out for these amazing people that are building the future.”
The district also has a reminder for motorists sharing the road with school buses: Pay attention to a bus’s flashing red lights and stop when required.
And when there’s uncertainty about whether it is safe to proceed, the lesson taught is simple:
“If you don’t know, you don’t go.”