Bus Drivers’ Tradition Of Taking Children To Dairy Queen Draws Complaint From Creeped-Out Parent
Photo by Corey Coyle (Wikimedia Commons)
A time-honored tradition involving schoolchildren and people that parents regard as strangers, like bus drivers, is coming to an end thanks to one sensitive mother.
Several bus drivers in the East Grand Forks Public School District in Michigan have an unofficial tradition of taking the kids they drive home every day to Dairy Queen on the last day of school. One parent was apparently unaware of the tradition, however, and became alarmed when her daughter didn’t arrive home promptly after school. When she learned about the Dairy Queen tradition, instead of being down with it, the mom picked up her daughter and filed a complaint with the district amidst concerns that it was a “field trip without chaperones.”
Turns out that the bus drivers informed the children of the event, but none of the parents received a notification about the trip. The school district does plan to improve communication of the tradition in the future… if it continues.
According to the Grand Forks Herald, the Dairy Queen tradition could be considered a terminable offense for bus drivers in other districts since the children were taken places without the parents’ permission or knowledge. The untrusting nature of the general public these days of those in public job positions, including bus drivers, further puts the Dairy Queen trip in jeopardy. One radio blogger summed up the reasoning for that perfectly.
“Thanks to the creeps among us, school bus drivers can no longer be trusted with kids.”
Parents are definitely more protective when it comes to their children, and when someone they do not know or trust, like a bus driver, takes their kids out for a treat, there’s clear reason to see why parents are concerned, especially in modern times as more stories of pedophiles and child abductions circulate around the internet.
However, this comes at the cost of a tradition that kids have looked forward to for years. While improved communication will be a good step to resolve the issue, one has to ask the question: In 2017, are we all okay with people we view as complete strangers taking our kids out for ice cream?
