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Should schools buses be designed with seatbelts? Without a doubt and unequivocally, the answer is yes.

In 2007, seven students were injured in a one-vehicle accident after the bus driver looked in the mirrors to check on them and fortuitously went through a bridge railing, going into the ditch. Thankfully, the bus didn't roll over and students were not seriously hurt.

It is no surprise that the topic of school bus seatbelts came up once again in the state and around the nation.

Most school buses are not outfitted with seatbelts since they are older model vehicles. Yet, they transport the most precious commodity of our country: our children. Why is something so valuable left to so much chance of injury or death? Luckily, there was footage in the Arkansas incident of how these children were tossed about during it so persons can finally get a look at the need for seatbelts. As one person said in a local newspaper, they (the children) were tossed about like rag dolls.

Has anyone stopped to wonder why it takes an accident of this magnitude to get back to the attention of the lack of seatbelts on school buses? Parents, school officials and legislators take advantage of the bus sizes to keep their children safe. They certainly aren't safe during a rollover, right?

What bothers me is that we are told from day one that children must be buckled up. We can get pulled over and ticketed if our children are not belted in. However, we send these children on a bus that has no seatbelts, taking a chance that the bus' size will protect them. Why aren't the districts getting a ticket too or at least getting reprimanded?

The second thing that bothers me is the message we are sending our children. Isn't double standard to tell them buckle up in an automobile but not to in a school bus? How does that help parents to teach their children that value when the school should be sending the same message and isn't? It's like a mom saying, "Okay Johnny, you need to buckle up but that's okay, you don't have to worry about that on the bus." What message does that send to the child? That his safety only matters in the car and not on a school bus?

If it were just a bus' size that could do the protecting, then why do big rigs, trains, tractors and other huge vehicles have seatbelts installed? It doesn't make total sense for a legislator or even a school district to use that as an excuse. If a bus were in a rollover, do these same people think students would be in their

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