Too much excitement

Today was the first day back at school after spring break.   It was a strange, weird, interesting day. First, you must know that Dusty is my bus para.  Dusty had been my best friend since we were 5 years old.  She is hilarious and when we are together everything is just more fun.  That is reason enough that her being my bus para shouldn’t be allowed, but we truly love the arrangement.  We picked up our kids in Carbondale, and headed back to Overbrook.   As we are headed along the highway, I asked her if it was supposed to storm and pointed out how bad the clouds looked.  She made a joke about milking her goat and if it didn’t milk good out the left side then a ‘nader was coming.   We laughed.  The kids laughed.  We pulled into the school to unload but were met by the school resource officer saying we were under a tornado warning and that all children needed to evacuate the bus and take cover in the hallway of the school.  About then the city sirens started going off.   It was something I have never experienced before.  Some of the kids were really scared.  Some were wanting us to let them walk home (negative), and some were laughing and asking if they could sit outside in their lawn chairs (also negative, but only because they didn’t actually have chairs).   I drive junior high aged kids.  They weren’t too excited about taking cover.  Some of them truly aren’t very bright.  I had to argue with a couple that they could not walk home while the sirens are sounding and we are under a tornado warning.  One kid offered to sign a waiver for us to let him walk across town.   We were under cover for around half an hour before they sounded the all clear and let us go.   I did text most of the parents of my route kids and told them their children were safe.  

Mallory took this picture.  The sky looked pretty wicked.  My bus kids had a lot of what if questions.  What if we had left the school?   What if the bus was caught in a tornado?  What if the storm wasn’t actually over?   I explained that we just do the best we can.  If you look at the first photo, you will see my mother.  She has been driving a bus for 30 something years and said this was her first bus tornado warning.  I hope it never happens again!   You will also see Mallory. She hates storms.  She was calm, helping the scared kids, making sure everyone was ok and very together.  She stopped by this evening, and I complimented her for staying so calm.  She said oh she wasn’t actually.  Well, she did a good job keeping it under wraps!   I’m proud of her!   The rest of this week and school year will be less exciting I hope!