By failing to honor bus-stop deal, Seattle Public Schools risks student safety

As college students put together to return to high school, their security ought to be a precedence together with a high-quality training.

That’s why Seattle Public Faculties ought to instantly discover a companion to assist implement an vital visitors regulation that motorists generally ignore once they method college buses.

When drivers observe or method a college bus with its stop-sign paddle prolonged, state regulation requires them to cease. Stopping visitors in each instructions makes it safer for college students to board or exit the bus.

The regulation is fairly easy, however enforcement hasn’t been, primarily resulting from funds.

Six years in the past, SPS buses have been outfitted with cameras used to seize the license plate numbers of motorists who blow previous the cease paddle. For years, SPS and the King County Prosecutor’s Workplace labored below a contract to ensure violators pay a hefty advantageous for endangering kids. At $500 per ticket, the thought was to make such carelessness or callousness a onetime offense. Whereas most motorists paid what they owed, SPS didn’t pay what it owed the county.

King County Prosecutor’s Workplace officers informed The Seattle Instances editorial board they by no means bought a greenback from SPS over the course of the contract. Below the contract, for every $500 ticket issued by Seattle police and contested by a motorist, SPS was to pay the prosecutor’s workplace $59.13 to signify the district in court docket. The rest of the advantageous can be break up between SPS and the court docket. Prosecutor’s workplace officers estimate that the typical quantity owed to them was roughly $10,000 a yr.

In the meantime, the Seattle Police Division wouldn’t say whether it is issuing citations for drivers who ignore the bus cease indicators.

When the contract resulted in August 2022, the prosecutor’s workplace realigned its price range priorities to deal with a backlog and uptick in prison circumstances. It eradicated the positions wanted to deal with SPS’ circumstances.

So why did the county go years with out being paid? A spokesman stated the workplace stored its finish of the deal in belief that the college district would at some point pay what was owed. The SPS wouldn’t say why it didn’t pay the prosecutor’s workplace.

With out the hammer of enforcement, the district, with a $131 million price range deficit, might lose about $1 million a yr in income. 

The district is now in talks with the town legal professional’s workplace to deal with the civil circumstances. Metropolis Lawyer Ann Davison could have her palms full ought to gross misdemeanor drug possession and public use circumstances land along with her workplace, as anticipated. That makes it much more crucial that SPS use a part of the tens of millions it collects to compensate those that signify it in court docket. 

The security of youngsters within the district ought to come first. Spending $59.13 out of $500 every time a motorist endangers a toddler is a discount. SPS must realign its priorities.