Bus Fuss

The Bus Fuss
I always wondered what was going on in the back seats of the school bus when I was riding home after some of those late night high-school sports games. But that was the cheerleader’s domain. I was a member the lowly drill team who could never quite coordinate our flag drills.

It was dangerous to get too close to us and our flailing objects pointed in every direction. That made us exempt from the backseat, or perhaps it was because we sang at the top of our lungs the whole way home; somehow that put the guys off. (I always wondered why the driver allowed the noise. He must have preferred it to the silence.)

I suspect that a more depraved version of what went on in the dark midnight hours on the back seat is probably what went on today on my high schooler’s bus, in broad daylight after trig and history between two “friends” who aren’t a couple; they weren’t even dating.

Sharing an ipod and plugging the other ear didn’t insulate her from this assault of good taste and propriety. My husband’s assistant said this happened to her in a packed movie theater last week. If this kind of public sexual display shows the degradation of values, will we be stepping around such a display on the sidewalk to get to breakfast in the next few years?

My daughter initially preferred that I forget this. “It happens all the time, Mom.” A prime teaching moment arrived. I love those moments to pontificate for a cause. For evil to triumph all that is necessary is that good people do nothing.

This activity is illegal—it’s public indecency. Those convicted of repeat offences can be classified as sexual offenders. We must report it and we must educate. Movie theater ushers are trained to enforce this. The principal of the primary school insisted that she would want to know of such activity at her school.

We are usually so appalled that we deny that this is happening. We can’t believe that it’s happening in front of us. Well, next time, next time… I’ll have some sort of a plan. I’ll arm my children against this insult to our public integrity. Perhaps my children are more aware of the nastiness than I was, but they must be more ready to stand up, stand out and stand strong.

And I am dusting off and exploring a better use for my drill team flag.

It’s just me thinking again, Terina