Driver slightly hurt when rock thrown through bus windshield

What are they doing on a field trip and how much did that cost tax payers? I finally figured out why a lot of these zoos air museums etc charge so much for admission. They have field trips and instead of letting the kids in for free like they probably did years ago, they charge them normal price and send the bill to the tax payer. What a scam. The Kalamazoo Air Museum for instance 6 years ago was like 7 dollars for adults, and 3.00 for kids. Then they remodeled the place and admission skyrocketed to like 21.00 for adults and kids were 12.00 I thought, who's going to spend that kind of money? Now I realize, they dont need to count on the general public going to get their money, they have field trips for kids to rely on at 12 bucks a kid. Covered by the tax payer. Someone needs to do a report on this and find out just how much these field trips are costing the tax payer. I'm all for field trips, but have these places let in the school kids in for free.

edward wrote:

What are they doing on a field trip and how much did that cost tax payers? I finally figured out why a lot of these zoos air museums etc charge so much for admission. They have field trips and instead of letting the kids in for free like they probably did years ago, they charge them normal price and send the bill to the tax payer. What a scam. The Kalamazoo Air Museum for instance 6 years ago was like 7 dollars for adults, and 3.00 for kids. Then they remodeled the place and admission skyrocketed to like 21.00 for adults and kids were 12.00 I thought, who's going to spend that kind of money? Now I realize, they dont need to count on the general public going to get their money, they have field trips for kids to rely on at 12 bucks a kid. Covered by the tax payer. Someone needs to do a report on this and find out just how much these field trips are costing the tax payer. I'm all for field trips, but have these places let in the school kids in for free.

Get a grip! These trips are not paid for by taxpayers! These trips are paid for by students having fundraisers and parents picking up part of the fee. If taxpayers were paying for free fieldtrips, half the schools in the city would be on a field trip everyday of the year. Get informed before you make such stupid statements!

Now, as for the students returning on a Sunday night after midnight, I do have a problem with that. Who in the heck scheduled that trip?

maybe, my kid went to the air zoo this last week,
seems to me, that I had to pay, the school paid for transportation tho.

And so it says smartypants- us parents - are taxpayers just thought I would clarify that for you, but yes it does get expensive for us who are not well off persay to pay for field trips. So Edward I see your point.

What are elementary students doing coming home at midnight?! Unless they went on a weekend-long field trip they still should have been back earlier than that...

It's amusing to see everyone put their two cents in knowing hardly any details about the whole incident. Edward about had a stroke when he has no clue where they were or why they were returning so late. Let the details come out before making snap judgements...take a deep breath!

NO MO wrote:

Its midnight ! what are they doing driving around at that hour. These kids wouldnt get home till after 1 am. Maybe thats normal for this bunch ?

They came from Martin Luther King school. No wonder we're having a problem with curfew violations. These kids grow up to think it's normal to be out at 1:30 am when 11 years old. This should be looked into why they were out so late.

Smartypants wrote:

<quoted text>
Get a grip! These trips are not paid for by taxpayers! These trips are paid for by students having fundraisers and parents picking up part of the fee. If taxpayers were paying for free fieldtrips, half the schools in the city would be on a field trip everyday of the year. Get informed before you make such stupid statements!
Now, as for the students returning on a Sunday night after midnight, I do have a problem with that. Who in the heck scheduled that trip?

Absolutely! I've participated in many, many, fundraisers for field trips for my children when they were in school.

True, some of the money is picked up by the parents, but in our school, if you couldn't afford to pay for your portion, you helped out a little more on those fundraising efforts. The extra money earned helped get those children on the trips.

So...what IS an acceptable time for all of you to have a rock thrown through a bus window? How about we focus on that?

Who threw the rock & how? Was it an overpass? Are we suppose to just assume? Luckily everybody ok 7 now for the Sun night thing...What is open at that time? I would be really upset if my daughter returned back from a field trip at 12! There is no excuse for that & why would there be??

Some of you idiots need to step away from your computers!

Who gives a rip that they were out late. They were doing something to enrich their lives.

Geeeze get a grip Steve and Kate. You really need a good fiber cereal.

it takes an hr for the police to find the school bus!!!??? what happends of some one was really hurt and need to be at the ER room??

I have a more important question......is this driver keeping a log book?? My understanding is school busses can not cross state lines without keeping a log book for a year...how did they pull this off?

Ok, Lets focus on the rock being thrown at the school bus, time it took authorities to meet up with the bus. I hope the KPS captain gets his hands dirty explaining to the taxpayers why there was the problem of locating the big yellow bus on I-94. Also I'm 50% sure the cell phone being used had a GPS chip in it and possiblity the bus has a gps chip in it as well. lets not forget there were 7 chaperones on the bus too.
Reminds me of a time a few years ago about a 911 call made from Northern Little Fields in GR, They kept asking what number the field was, NLL doesn't have numbers that's the GR rec dept fields. We kept saying right in front of the Vets Facility...finally the parents took their son in their own car!
Maybe it's not the comunication, but lack of knowing the area that person serves.

Since you all get your "news" from WOOD, here is the story from the Press.

Rock crashes through window of bus carrying Grand Rapids students - GRPress - 5/19/08
Posted by The Grand Rapids Press May 19, 2008 08:14AM
Categories: Breaking News
KALAMAZOO -- A rock that apparently came from an overpass went through the
front window of a charter bus carrying Grand Rapids Public Schools
eighth-graders late Saturday, hitting the driver in the shoulder but causing
only a minor injury.

None of the 28 students on the bus -- all from Martin Luther King Jr.
Leadership Academy returning from a field trip to Cincinnati -- was injured
and the bus eventually continued to Grand Rapids.

Academy Principal Jerry McComb, who was in the third row of the bus,
described the rock as about 4 to 5 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide.

The bus was traveling under an Int. 94 overpass about 10:30 p.m. near
Portage Road when the rock crashed through the window. Kalamazoo Public
Safety officers were investigating.

McComb said no one saw anyone on the overpass or could tell where the rock
came from, but he said no cars or trucks were traveling in front of the bus
that could have kicked up a rock.

"I give the bus driver all the accolades," McComb said. "If he had been hit
in the face, the situation might have been a whole different story."

The driver stopped the bus and waited for police to respond, but eventually
drove to the next exit to meet police. The bus was allowed to proceed to
Grand Rapids after the window was taped.

The students, along with seven chaperones, were returning from a trip to the
aquarium, museum and other attractions in Cincinnati.

10:30, not midnight, they didn't attend the Air-Zoo, it was a charter bus, etc. For all of the blame that teachers get, I cannot believe the insensitive, uniformed and downright racist comments posted here. This is a situation that could have been a tragedy. Opinions are fine, but at least have a half-way informed one.

Then I revoke my comment......it would make sense to have a chartered bus, but, when those of us that drive for a living see that, we see red.

As far as 'taping' the window, that would never ever be allowed to happen in a school bus.

edward wrote:

What are they doing on a field trip and how much did that cost tax payers? I finally figured out why a lot of these zoos air museums etc charge so much for admission. They have field trips and instead of letting the kids in for free like they probably did years ago, they charge them normal price and send the bill to the tax payer. What a scam. The Kalamazoo Air Museum for instance 6 years ago was like 7 dollars for adults, and 3.00 for kids. Then they remodeled the place and admission skyrocketed to like 21.00 for adults and kids were 12.00 I thought, who's going to spend that kind of money? Now I realize, they dont need to count on the general public going to get their money, they have field trips for kids to rely on at 12 bucks a kid. Covered by the tax payer. Someone needs to do a report on this and find out just how much these field trips are costing the tax payer. I'm all for field trips, but have these places let in the school kids in for free.

Does it stinking matter about who paid for the field trip?! It said it was PRIVATELY funded anyways. The point is some jerk through a rock into the bus window...which in turn could have caused a MAJOR accident had the driver been injured. It should NOT have taken police over an hour to get there either!

JMHO wrote:

So...what IS an acceptable time for all of you to have a rock thrown through a bus window? How about we focus on that?

Thank-You! It doesn't matter what time these kids came home on the bus...what matters is who threw the rock and why it took the police so long to respond! Some schools have weekend field trips...mine used to!

GR Teacher wrote:

Since you all get your "news" from WOOD, here is the story from the Press.
Rock crashes through window of bus carrying Grand Rapids students - GRPress - 5/19/08
Posted by The Grand Rapids Press May 19, 2008 08:14AM
Categories: Breaking News
KALAMAZOO -- A rock that apparently came from an overpass went through the
front window of a charter bus carrying Grand Rapids Public Schools
eighth-graders late Saturday, hitting the driver in the shoulder but causing
only a minor injury.
None of the 28 students on the bus -- all from Martin Luther King Jr.
Leadership Academy returning from a field trip to Cincinnati -- was injured
and the bus eventually continued to Grand Rapids.
Academy Principal Jerry McComb, who was in the third row of the bus,
described the rock as about 4 to 5 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide.
The bus was traveling under an Int. 94 overpass about 10:30 p.m. near
Portage Road when the rock crashed through the window. Kalamazoo Public
Safety officers were investigating.
McComb said no one saw anyone on the overpass or could tell where the rock
came from, but he said no cars or trucks were traveling in front of the bus
that could have kicked up a rock.
"I give the bus driver all the accolades," McComb said. "If he had been hit
in the face, the situation might have been a whole different story."
The driver stopped the bus and waited for police to respond, but eventually
drove to the next exit to meet police. The bus was allowed to proceed to
Grand Rapids after the window was taped.
The students, along with seven chaperones, were returning from a trip to the
aquarium, museum and other attractions in Cincinnati.
10:30, not midnight, they didn't attend the Air-Zoo, it was a charter bus, etc. For all of the blame that teachers get, I cannot believe the insensitive, uniformed and downright racist comments posted here. This is a situation that could have been a tragedy. Opinions are fine, but at least have a half-way informed one.

Thank-You for posting this! Some people are rude and insensitive...and in part racist! When I was in the 8th grade we took a field trip to Ohio for Cedar Point...on a chartered bus. We didn't end up getting home until about 1-2 am the next morning. We just slept the trip home on the charter bus. However, the whole point of the story was to figure out why it took the police so long to respond, not for people to make rude and racial comments about where people live and so forth...

Edward is a **** on AOL, the fact he's on such a dinosaur internet should have told us all we needed to know. Furthermore, the Kalamazoo Police are jackasses as well. Anyone who has been in Kalamazoo long enough realizes how retarded these fools are.