Every school day, Derek Brooks gets on the bus at 3:30 p.m. at Fernan STEM Academy. He stays on the bus at the first stop and gets off at the second. Sometimes his mom and grandma meet him in the cul-de-sac and walk him down the block to their house.

“We’ve had great bus drivers here; you don’t hear about too many accidents with buses in this area,” said Lisa Brooks, Derek’s mom. “And I think the district is very good about cancelling or delaying school when road conditions are bad.”

However, every once in awhile, Brooks remembers what happened to the child of a family friend years ago. The family’s daughter was in a bus accident and suffered lacerations on her face.

Brooks said she wonders, if the bus had seat belts, would the girl have gotten hurt?

As the Coeur d’Alene School District begins to replace its aging bus fleet, the school board is also looking at an old but very relevant question: Should school buses have seat belts?/Bethany Blitz, Coeur d'Alene Press. More here.