Negligence?

This coming January, there will be a 3 day trip for the 6th grade to a place in the Catskills.
It is a 2 hour drive from here. Tim and I made the decision not to chaperone because I felt
even though they were going to be very strict about not letting sick kids come in light of this
H1N1 deal, I still didn't think it was a good idea for Tim and I to be sleeping in a dorm situation in
the middle of cold and flu season. I also notice that when the kids come back from the holiday
break, all sorts of illness flies around the school for weeks afterward. Tim does not want Olivia to miss out on things because of him but we can limit the exposure a little by not putting all three of us in this situation. The problem not chaperoning presents is that Olivia gets carsick BAD. A bus is hands down the worst type of vehicle to be in for this so
we have to drive her there and pick her up or risk her getting sick in a bus with no bathroom
which is humiliating and if you think kids will not mock her for this, you'd be wrong. I do use
a very small amount of dramamine with her but I'm not sure this amount would work well enough for a 2 hour bus ride part of which will be on country roads. If I give her more, she will
be asleep and unable to function at all both in the bus and for several hours after they get there.
The other problem is that they will use chartered buses without seatbelts. I don't understand this. There are all these laws about using carseats, boosters and seatbelts with kids. You can be
ticketed for breaking these laws but you can put kids in buses without belts anytime with no problem. Have you ever seen those news reports of what happens in bus accidents? The kids
are catapulted out the windows and there is often fatalities and critical injuries. Last year, the principal let Tim and I drive her to a day trip and we chaperoned for them because he considered this carsickness to be a medical condition that warranted it. This year we have a new
assistant principal who tells me the other day that she either goes on the bus or she misses the trip. That is the school policy. When I ask him how he will accomodate a child who is throwing up
and usually has a stomach ache that leads to her having to go to the bathroom at the same time
on a bus with no bathroom, he tells me he will have to check into this further and get back to me.
He also was not aware that we had been allowed to drive her last year. I'm waiting for the phone call with his decision. If it is the wrong one, I will be telling him that my daughter is going on the trip, we are driving her and if he wants to take this further, have at it. He thinks I am trying to
make a story up because of the seatbelts. I told him I would be happy to have Olivia's doctor
speak with him about her motion sickness. BUT even if the problem was just the seatbelts, isn't that a good enough reason? If something happened to her, I'd never forgive myself. One of the roads they will be on is the New York State thruway. My sister lives up that way and you would not want to give her a dollar for everytime she sat in traffic going home from work due to yet another fatal accident on that road. I don't let me daughter drive with people I don't know. I'm sure there are lots of great bus drivers out there but let's face it, there are many who just plain
can not get any other job. I know a woman who drove a school bus for years. She had a heart condition and was in the early stages of alzheimers when they finally pulled her from driving but still let her be a bus aide. I know a man who has diabetes and could not feel his feet well and was
still driving a bus. I don't want Olivia on a bus with no belts. We'll see what this guy comes up with. There are quite a few parents nervous about this especially considering we could be dealing
with weather conditions that time of year. They are all being told, it's the bus or your kid stays home. I'd love to see a law passed that forbids transporting kids like this. Along with that, I think
it should be totally illegal to put young kids on motorcycles with you. I've seen kids as young as
3 and 4 riding with daddy on motorcycles that don't even have sissy bars. Makes me crazy. Those kids have no idea how dangerous bikes are. I think it should be outlawed. I have nothing against motorcycles. Used to ride a dirt bike myself. But putting a kid on a bike on these roads
where we have a gazillion cars per square mile is insane. I sold my bike 2 months after I had Olivia. I decided not to take unnecessary risks with my life but I REALLY don't think it's right to take unnecessary risks with a kid's life when they are too young to understand the dangers.