#school disaster

So, in Kentucky, there are LOTS of little counties. Actually, their the 4th State in the list of Most Counties. There's one county, Jefferson, that has around 770,000 people. This is over double the next largest county in the state. This is a big deal because schools are managed by the Board of Education of each county. Most counties have multiple schools based on population.

I promise this is important to the point-

Jefferson County has 120 public schools (and about 50 private/religious institutions). Now, there is a Board, with seven individuals elected every four years, so changes go through votes and meetings. However... Recently, people have been left behind in the system. You see, Jefferson has a 60% population of minorities enrolled in the schools there. Last year, the Superintendent (the leader of the Board) gave himself (thru a surprise vote) a 27% raise. This was a shock to most educators and principals, especially when the next month had a disaster.

The raise was in July. August hit and the new year was starting. Our system is bus heavy - Kentucky is large and parents are busy. Getting to school was fine, but something happened at the end of the day.

The transportation department of the whole school system had been failing for years because, simply put, bus drivers get paid shit. A CDL license can pay big money but school drivers have significant wage cuts compared to the rest. They couldn't get anyone to take up the job. And it wasn't a huge shortage at first. 553 drivers, 569 routes. This was the total when they decided to say fuck it. They hired AlphaRoute, a company that uses AI to make routes for school busses. It made things infinitely worse.

The first day of school, the last child to get off the last bus got home at 10 PM.

Children were being dropped at transportation depots to be picked up by different busses. A lot of the time, they were unsupervised. Most of them were shepherded to the wrong bus. A large number of these children were elementary to middle school age, with some as young as kindergarten.

Now, as you can imagine, the police were being called a lot. Parents were rightfully terrified about children who should've been home. There is outrage the likes of which I have never seen.

So. The school cancels the first week and tries again, this time with routes that are designed by humans. They invest in a firm to figure out why the plan failed (what a waste of money) and find out everything they planned for this year of school was a catastrophic failure on every level.

So now, recently, the Superintendent proposed that we just... Get rid of buses. They would get rid of busses for 28 schools, or 15,000 children.

The Mayor of Louisville hated this plan SO MUCH that he suggested slashing the TARC bus program on favor of continuing full transportation. TARC is vital for the homeless and poor neighborhoods in the area (as someone who lived there at one point). Public transportation is extremely sparse, especially on the west end where we need it most.

38 children, between the ages of 7 and 14, and 6 Adults were killed. 45 killed in all, including the perpetrator and his wife. 58 others, children and adults, were wounded. A disgruntled man took his anger and frustrations out on a small community school where he once worked.

The community was turned upside down in an instant when the bomb he planted around the school blew the north wing of the building to pieces. Had his plan gone as intended, the entire school would have been destroyed. A second bomb in the south end of the school was discovered, thankfully undetonated.

Andrew Kehoe killed his wife, destroyed his farm with firebombs, drove to the school after his timed bomb went off, then blew up his own truck while he sat inside it. He had loaded with metal scrap to inflict more damage to the already disoriented and injured people.

Omg. Yes, I'm starting it with omg. And I might end it with omg, too. Hahaha.

Okay here's what happened.. As early as 6:40am, I forced myself to wake up with too much heaviness in my eyelids. I was already up for a hot shower when I realized that my class would start at 9am. By that time, I was thinking it'd start at 8am. So I crawled back to my bed and sleep again for an hour. And when I woke up again, I prepared for school and did my morning school routine and all that.

When I arrived school at exactly 9am, I rushed the stairs to reach our room faster. But when I sneaked on the door's glass to check if my prof has arrived, I was way surprised of what I saw. DIFFERENT FACES - so I was like, "Where is my class?", "Where are my classmates?", "Where's our room?" I really felt lost to think that I ran out of load, meaning I have no one to text or call.

But then I saw this guy from the hallway and asked him where our room was. He answered, "RM 505." So from room 402, I ran the stairs up to room 505. When I opened the door, it's a relief to see my classmates but I was shocked to see a different prof.

Okay if you are not getting it, we were taking Socio together with the freshmen that's why we have differences on class scheds/subjects. But I am not irregular, okay? It's a long story to tell.

Anyway, going back to the story, since I knew the prof, I asked her nicely.. like

Me: Maam, aren't we supposed to take Socio class today?

Prof: Ha? E this is my sched and room. Class, do you have socio today?

I heard the class said, "No mam, Wednesday pa po Socio class."

AND I WAS LIKE OMGGG IT'S WAY TOO EMBARRASSING BUT IT'S OKAY 'COZ I FIND IT FUNNY. =)))