Some legislators want to protect kids from porn, but they’re ok with the same kids being crushed under cars on the way to school.

State Representative Rebecca Reimer has a bill in the system this year that’s actually a good idea.

House Bill 1094 allows school buses to have video recorders on board – if the district or bus company chooses – which can be used in evidence of people who don’t follow the law in stopping when the STOP arm is extended and the flashing red lights are going, removing any doubt whether someone is violating that very important safety rule that schools are faced with daily as they transport kids.  Here’s the meat and ‘taters of the act:

Section 2. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 32-32:

If any school bus, as defined in § 32-32-1, is transporting students enrolled in a school district in this state and is equipped with an external video system capable of recording traffic activity around the bus, any recording from that video system is discoverable and may be entered into evidence in any civil or criminal action.

No district or bus company is required to install an external video system under this Act.

Follow the legislation here.

In my mind, this is not just reasonable legislation, but very necessary. Why? Because I witnessed it almost daily with my own daughter.  I have a special needs daughter who was transported by bus to her program with the Brookings School District daily, to and from my house on a fairly busy street – 2 schools up the street, and the street is a major artery in town, and everyone tends to be a little lead footed. And honestly, people are terrible about stopping.

Several times I week I would witness people just sailing by on the opposite side of the street when the red lights were flashing and the stop sign extended, whether because they were inattentive, ignorant, or just didn’t care.   The school bus would honk at them, and that was about all they could do, because the police can’t be everywhere.

This bill actually allows the buses to document the violation, and for schools to present evidence to the state’s attorney for a prosecution decision so people possibly get the hint to not put kids in danger. It’s actually useful. And here’s how the vote went yesterday:

After passing unanimously in House Judiciary, 19 House members voted against protecting school kids from getting ran over by idiots.

Voted to Run over kids (Nays): Auch, Aylward, Baxter, Garcia, Gosch, Hunt, Ismay, Jensen (Phil), Jordan, Lems, Manhart, May, Mulally, Odenbach, Randolph, Reder, Schaefbauer, Sjaarda, and Soye. 19 legislators actually voted against protecting kids who are just trying to get on the darn bus to go to school. 

Here’s where it gets weirder. Bethany Soye had voted to support the measure in committee, but flip/flopped her vote when it came to the floor.  Not to mention Soye sends out press releases touting herself as introducing a “Protect Kids from Porn” bill that restricts minors from accessing pornography.  But, her porn bill about “protecting kids” from porn is kind of BS when she clearly doesn’t give a fig about kids being run over at the bus stop.

Isn’t protecting the fragile little minds of our kids equally important with them not being crushed under the wheels of a vehicle while getting on or off of the school bus?

I’ll leave you with a couple of videos:

Nationally, it happens more than 90,000 times a day. Putting a camera on a bus to capture when it happens for a local prosecutor to act is not an unreasonable thing.