THIS BUS HAS BEEN CHECKED FOR SLEEPING CHILDREN
I saw this sign in the back of a schoolbus. Though it must have been posted for our reassurance, I was disturbed.

There has been more than one case of little ones found asleep in the back of a schoolbus just in the short time since school started. Thursday night’s news had the unsettling incident of a pre-schooler who spent a whole day in some sort sort of limbo in which she was in a bus while parent/school/bus company all thought she had been accounted for. (Don’t even get me started on whether 4 year olds should go to school all day or ride a big school bus in a very urban suburb of Chicago.)

So, my question is...why the sign? Children should be accounted for. The bus should be checked at the end of a run, if only for perishable litter and lost-and-found items. Are we to assume that a new sign is posted after every check? Should we be unsettled by a sign stating the obvious? How about DRIVER IS NOT DRUNK? THIS BUS HAS WORKING BRAKES? Where would it end?