Story Archive

Sit Still and Shut Up

Sarah Auger, 8, is a rarity among kids these days: rather than play with a smartphone or hand-held game console, the girl from in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. Canada, chose to spend her 20-minute bus ride to and from school each day to read real paper books. She did, at least, until the bus driver told her to stop — because it might not be safe. How so? Other students might stand up to get a better look at what she is reading, or she may poke herself in the eye with the corner of the cover, he said. “I find it stupid and useless,” said her father, Daniel Abel, who complained to the school board about the rule. But the Hautes Rivière school board said bus safety is the purview of the transport company, and refused to intervene; bosses at Autobus Richelieu are backing the driver. “Our only goal is to make sure students are safe,” says spokeswoman Nancy Ménard, who said the rule actually came to them from the school board, and complaints about the rule are unfair. “We have to put it in the context that there are 50 students on the bus.” (RC/CBC) ...Because it would be chaos if more than one kid ended up actually being smarter and well-read.