Today, my little town faced a terrible, devastating tragedy. Three children, two six-year-old twins and their nine-year-old sister were killed while getting onto the school bus. Another child, age 11, was critically injured and airlifted to Fort Wayne. You can find more details here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc11.com/amp/3-children-killed-in-crash-at-school-bus-stop-in-indiana/4581159/ This hurts my heart so badly, as I have a seven-year-old that rides a bus on the same roads, and this is a fear that haunts me every day. Even after countless safety talks and warnings with our kids, how can we know what a driver is going to do? What if he or she is texting and driving, or has a screaming child in the back causing distraction? Or what if the bus stop is at the top of a hill and an unaware driver isn’t able to stop in time? There are so many what-ifs that it can drive a parent crazy. And it is so easy to blame the driver. We all do it, even before we know any details, we instantly see hatred pouring from every direction. But amidst all the blame, I think it’s time for a solution, and really, it’s a pretty elementary change: Stop making kids cross the damn road. Simple. Create a bus route that allows every child to get on/off the bus with the doors facing his or her house/bus stop. Turn the bus around multiple times, if necessary. Go around the block if you have to. As a parent of a child that crosses a busy road in the afternoon, I would much rather tack on an extra 15+ minutes to the bus ride if it meant she came from a different direction and could step right into the driveway without crossing the road. I feel that this change is extremely plausible. We need to require buses to have routes that do not force children to walk across the street to board. I’ve never made one of these before, but I’m hoping it’ll reach the right people and we can put an end to these preventable deaths. Thank you! ❤️