SEASIDE, Calif. — A 15-year-old girl who stopped an out-of-control school bus she was riding on was handed a Saturday detention instead because she was skipping school.
Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head.
Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was injured.
But Rouse said she was punished because she wasn't supposed to be on the bus.
Monday, March 17, 2008
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
You've got to be kidding me.
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9 comments:
If an escaped prisoner saves a child's life, do we just let him stay out?
Moral equivalence arguments don't usually impress me.
She was supposed to be on that bus. God protected those students.
I've heard stories of illegal immigrants saving peoples' lives as they're sneaking into the country. It ought to count for something, while recognizing that it is a CRIME being committed.
Unfortunately when we dish out rules that never bend we lose sight of common sense and compassion sometimes.
I thought you were the 'no point in having a law if we don't enforce it' person.
Secondly, the goal wasn't to impress you, it was to point out that you can't bend on rules. And you've yet to state *why* you don't like them.
In the army, when a soldier is subject to punishment the commander considers "circumstances in extenuation and mitigation". Extenuating circumstances might explain or excuse the action ("I missed formation because I was assisting at the scene of a car accident"). Mitigating circumstances cause the punishment to be less severe (first offense, otherwise a stellar soldier, soldier admitted the mistake without hesitation).
I hope I don't need to explain any further.
Less severe is one thing, but completely ignoring the law is quite another, no?
I wouldn't bust the soldier who missed formation because he was assisting at the scene of an accident.
It's all about judgement.
I agree that judgment comes into play here, but doesn't this also fall under:
"If you're not going to enforce a law, don't have it?"
I'm torn between the two.
She only got detention. She didn't get truancy court or an expulsion. It's great she was able to avert an accident, but who can say that, if Amanda hadn't been on the bus, someone else could not have done the same thing?
Anyway, there is a lot of the story untold in this article. For instance, you don't know if the girl has a history of skipping school. Maybe the Marina HS principal is just a hard-nosed SOB who won't cut anybody any slack for anything. Or maybe the Saturday detention /was/ tempered discipline.
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