Education Week - November 13, 2019 - 3

BRIEFLY STATED

It's Seat Backs, Not Belts
That Are Worrisome
For School Bus Safety

Media
Messages

What messages have you
received about vaping
online? (Select all that apply.)

Rarely a day
goes by without
teenagers seeing
someone vaping in
school or reading
something about
the practice online.

Those big yellow buses rolling down the nation's
roads are scarier than you'd think, but for a reason
that's far from obvious.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
has announced a recall that could affect nearly 54,000
school buses-11 percent of the 480,000 on the roads
throughout the country.
What's driving the recall are the seat backs. They
don't have enough padding to meet federal safety standards, increasing the risk of students getting injured
in a crash.
It turns out that seat padding is an important part of
protecting kids in school bus accidents.
According to the NHTSA, school bus passengers are
protected from crash impact by strong, closely spaced
seats with energy-absorbing seat backs. That design,
says the NHTSA, is part of what allows students to
safely ride in buses without wearing seat belts-that
and the fact that large school buses distribute the force
from a crash differently from passenger cars.
Still, there's hardly universal agreement on whether
school buses should be equipped with seat belts. The
National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency
that investigates crashes, last year recommended that
all new large school buses come outfitted with both lap
and shoulder belts.
Regardless, statistics show that children are still safer
riding to school on a bus than with a parent. More than
25 million children ride school buses every day across
the country, while school bus accidents claim four to
six lives a year.
The recall affects Thomas Built Buses from the years
2014 through 2020. The parent company, Daimler
Trucks North America, reported the issue to NHTSA
and will be notifying owners and dealers of the recall.
The company plans to fix the problem by adding padding, says the NHTSA.
Districts owning buses that may be affected can contact Daimler Trucks at 1-800-547-0712, the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety
Hotline at 1-888-327-4236, or go to www.safercar.gov.
The recall is expected to begin on Dec. 2.

Here are what
1,062 students view
online about the
topic.

SOURCE: Common Sense
Media/Survey Monkey

72%

Risks or
How to
harms
stop vaping
associated
with vaping

Vaping is
healthier
than
smoking

Where to
buy vapingrelated
products

Vaping is
cool

How to
How to hide
use vaping
vaping
devices

Schoolchildren Can't Seem to Escape
Ubiquitous Presence of E-Cigarettes
Quick! What are teenagers exposed to on an almost daily
basis? The answer: Vaping-a phenomenon that has exploded
in just a few short years.
Even if they don't use electronic cigarettes, they're being
inundated with images of vaping-either from seeing their
peers doing it or reading posts about it on social media.
That's according to a new poll by Common Sense Media, a
nonprofit that studies the impact of technology on children and
young people. The poll comes as teenage e-cigarette use has
ballooned and a slew of vaping-related deaths has sent schools
and policymakers scrambling to contain a growing publichealth menace.
The poll illustrates how pervasive vaping has become in
schools and social-media sites popular with teenagers: 78
percent of teens said vaping is popular among their peers
where they live; just over a third said they see classmates
vaping in school several times a week, if not daily; and almost
60 percent said they frequently encounter a social-media

post that either mentions or shows vaping.
One positive note: Survey results indicate that youths are
gaining understanding of the potential harms of vaping.
These survey results come as school leaders and
policymakers are starting to take more muscular action
against teen vaping.
The nation's second-largest district, Los Angeles Unified, just
sued JUUL Labs, a move that ups the ante on a wave of districts
that are filing lawsuits against the e-cigarette manufacturer.
The suit accuses JUUL of marketing to youths and
misrepresenting the health consequences of vaping. That's
led, the district's complaint says, to an explosion of youth
vaping that is impeding learning and requiring the district to
redirect spending.
Said schools Superintendent Austin Beutner, "We have had
to divert dollars away from classroom instruction and instead
spend it on counseling and programs to help inform students
of the dangers of vaping."

BRIEFLY STATED CONTRIBUTORS: Associated Press, Alyson Klein, Arianna Prothero, Stephen Sawchuk, Tribune News Service, and Madeline Will. Edited by Karen Diegmueller.

Vol. 39 * Issue 13 * November 13, 2019
1 Should Schools Have a Policy

On Use of the N-Word?

1 Shop Students Get Lessons in

Unionizing

1 Most School Shooters Gave Many

Warning Signs, Report Says

1 Screen Time Up as Reading Scores Drop.

Is There a Link?

5 Education Issues Resonate in

Governors' Races

6 Everybody Supports 'Equity,'

But How Do They Define It?

OPINION
16 How to Close Gifted Education's

Opportunity Gap

17 It's Time for Schools to Completely Ban

the "N Word"

20 Stop Scapegoating Gifted Children

DEPARTMENTS
3 Briefly Stated
6 What the Research Says
18 Letters to the Editor
19 EdWeek Top School Jobs

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NoVo Foundation, the Wallace
Foundation, the Walton Family
Foundation, the William E Simon
Foundation, and the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Education Week retains sole editorial
control over the content underwritten
by foundations.

6 State ESSA Goals May Prove Elusive

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Education Week - November 13, 2019

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