Things are not yet ‘back to normal’

Regarding the Tuesday article, “Parents want higher bail for suspect in Lake Stevens bus case”:

I am tired of picking up the newspaper and seeing Arlene Hulten from the Lake Stevens School District continually minimize the gravity of what happened to the 38 kids and the bus driver on Sept. 14 when a man forced his way onto the bus and terrorized the kids by screaming at them and telling them he was searching for drugs.

These students, ranging in age from 5 to 10 years old, had to watch a man with no shirt covered in tattoos walk up and down the aisle of their bus, yelling at them and their bus driver. My son was silently chanting over and over, “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die.” He is 5. My 7- and 9-year-olds were crouched down in a seat using their emergency cell phones to call me, screaming, “There’s a man on my bus, come get me please!”

You don’t go back to normal after something like that as the public has been lead to believe. Most of these kids did not want to just go back to class on Friday, on Monday things were not back to normal as Arlene said. For these kids normal is a long way off. Maybe she should take time to talk to some of the kids on the bus before making a blanket statement like everything is “back to normal.” The kids on Bus 22 that day are having trouble sleeping, having nightmares, having trouble riding the bus again, some are having trouble going to school, some can’t concentrate, some are jumpy and most have lost trust. Sometimes PR is important, but the kids are always more important.

Holly Case