STORM2K

An interesting debate ensued on my bus ride home from class a little while ago..

Where I live, the public bus runs by an elementary, middle, and high school all on the same trip. The debate is this.. A lot of the kids on the bus are elementary and middle schoolers.

Here's the debate.. How young is too young to allow your child to take the public bus home.. instead of a ride or the school bus..

In my opinion.. I would probably wait till 4th-5th grade till I would let my child take the public bus home.

Any opinions from you guys..

High school. If they are old enough to drive, they are old enough to use public transportation on their own. This depends on the city, however, as well.

Good point Garrett.. I only say 4th-5th grade because 4th or 5th grade they should know their area pretty well, and if they were to say "Mom or Dad.. I wanna take the bus.." then the parents could let them if they chose too

I would say nobody under the age of 13 should be taking public transportation alone.

That's a good point John.. I would have to say you're right on that 1. I sometimes find it alarming to see so many little kids on the bus. Most of them are probably 4th or 5th graders but that's still usually about 10-12 years old. It does make me wonder sometimes

Not a public bus...but I did once take a taxi cab ride home alone from Kindergarten and did just fine. That was in the late 1960s...

Now in today's society that would be highly risky for a young child. :-?

Eric

I recall that, when I was in college, students from St. Catherine Laboure HS (all-female) in South STL would be on the public bus...but never alone. Rather, they filled half the bus until they exited, and there is "strength in numbers".

Middle/elementary kids? No way!

where i live i wouldn't let the kids ride a city bus to home or school til highschool.

Public bus? What's that? LOL. We dont' have that around here. Of course, the population of the nearest town (Seminary) is about 300 LOL.

LOL Tim

I took the school bus, in Massachusetts, from Kindergarten right through my senior year in high school.
I lived two to three miles from all four (public) schools I attended.

Why pay to ride the city bus when you've got the public school bus?

LOL.. Trust me.. You have no clue how many kids would rather pay the 50 cents for the city bus instead of taking the school bus lol

I remember when I was a preteen I really wanted to ride the "Votran" from my community to a friends house...it was all unincorporated area, but my parents still said NO, and I think that was a very wise choice. I was a teen when i finally did ride the bus.

Here's an interesting fact...in CA you have to "pay" for your child to ride the school bus...where ARE all of those tax dollars going??