For some students, trying to catch a bus all the way up or down the hill in a five minute span can cause great problems. This could sometimes lead to waiting for hours for a parent to get off work or taking a three hour walk home.

Students miss the buses for all different reasons. For example, some don’t use their time wisely, some need to turn in work or talk to a teacher, but for most, its because the buses leave in such a short amount of time. Despite their efforts to get there in time, students miss their bus.

“I see kids almost in tears over missing their bus,” Miss. Ruthanne Gudzan said. Students are given five minutes to get from class to class. This is about the same amount of time given to walk out of the school and all the way down the hill for some.

“Students don’t have time to drop something off at a teacher’s room, even if they pass their room,” Gudzan said. Students have to avoid talking to and getting help from their teachers in order to catch their soon leaving bus.

The struggle may be increased for some of the students in the middle school. While high schoolers are walking down towards their bus, some of the middle school students need to run uphill in order to catch the bus. However,“The buses do stop for middle schoolers coming up the hill,” Gudzan said, This is one advantage of the middle schoolers that the high school students don’t have.

Unfortunately, there are some students whose bus is on the opposite side of the parking lot from their school. The students in the high school who ride the first bus at the very bottom of the hill have to run everyday and are still very close to missing their bus.

Missing the bus could actually cause the students to react in an unsafe way. Not only are some of the Freedom students too young to walk home alone, but many of the students have to walk along main roads with ongoing and speedy traffic to finally get home.

Freedom Area School District is a fairly large district. It would take anyone a very long time to walk from one side of the district to the other, especially a young student. According to Google Maps, the farthest side of the district could take up to four hours to walk home.

Even though this is sometimes not an option for students, parents can also take some time to pick up their child. If the parent has to wait until they’re done with work, then it could take possibly an hour or two for that parent to pick up their child. This is a reason why the buses should be at the advantage of the students in as many ways as possible.

“My school used to have an activity bus that would leave around 3:45,” Gudzan said.

An activity bus is an extra bus that leaves later in the day for students who are in activities, need to talk to a teacher, finish a test, etc. However, funding this extra bus may be very difficult.

In order to still get home at a similar time, students could be let out of their final class, which is usually Academic Assistance period, or AAP, a little early. The students who get let out could also depend on where the individual student’s bus is located, at the top or bottom of the hill.

Another benefit could be to allow the buses to wait 10 minutes instead of the previous five. Any changes pertaining to the buses would greatly benefit the students.