Dear Editor,

We continue to take a back-seat approach to the care and protection of our most vulnerable human assets — our children.

We come and display our hypocritical love each year with big speeches and commitments to ensure the care and protection of minors. We exhaust one month worth of energy in May each year to put on Oscar-type performances to deceive children of our fake love.

I draw your attention to the capital city, Kingston, and specifically commuting on Spanish Town Road. The transporting of children on the 81 and 35 bus routes to and from school in their uniform is in need of Government’s attention. The buses commute from Seaview Garden and Waterhouse terminating in downtown Kingston. The drivers and conductors are not fit to transport children. The conductors stuff the buses, exceeding their capacity, which see the students sitting in each other’s laps. I should also mention that these are not coaster buses, but 15-seater minibuses with barely any room to breathe.

To say the drivers are reckless and careless is an understatement. They overtake and undertake lines of traffic, make U-turns anywhere, ignore traffic lights, stop in the middle of the road, race with other drivers, and the list of infractions is by no means exhausted. In addition, they play loud and lewd music.

As adults, we are often tempted to say the children are bad and make bad decisions, but do we have a responsibility to our children? Yes, we do!

Bus operators, believe it or not, are a part of the village that is needed to raise children. The Transport Authority should hold the operators of these buses at a higher standard of accountability when children are involved. We are charged with the responsibility to steer children in a positive direction, even when they seem wayward.

Telling the children to take Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) buses is not enough. We need to hold their hands along the process of making decisions and create a safe environment for them to prosper.

Let us not only talk about care and protection for our children, let us also act on it.

Hezekan Bolton

h_e_z_e@hotmail.com