I've got enough common sense
not to pass a [stopped] school bus."
~ Tichi Pinkney Eppes, 9th District
RPS School Board Member
Oh, good grief! If Tichi Pinkney-Eppes, the Richmond School Board member from the 9th District, had demonstrated even a passing familiarity with the notion of "common sense" during her tenure on the board, I would encourage people to suspend their disbelief long enough to listen to her sorry-as-a-wet-shaggy-dog story about why she should not be held accountable for passing a [stopped] school bus.
Mind you, Virginia law is clear -- the ticket carries a possible civil penalty of up to $250. Reckless driving generally is a Class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500.
I reposted the Richmond Times-Dispatch story below so everyone could read Eppes' claims that the school bus was totally empty and the bus driver was not even on the bus as well as her acknowledgement that she saw the bus' STOP "arm" outstretched. [see below].
Think about this statement. I don't know about the last time you were stopped behind a school bus, but I have always found it impossible to determine whether kids were on the bus unless they smooshed their faces into the back window and waved at me. As to whether kids are elsewhere on the bus -- hard to tell until you are driving past it and happen to look up.
BUT WAIT! You aren't supposed to drive around the bus if the STOP arm is outstretched, so there is no way you can say with accuracy whether there are kids on or NOT on the bus.
And, how can you see all the way to the front of the bus and the driver's seat, if you are in your vehicle behind the bus?
I am also troubled by Eppes' statement that she was LEAVING a pre-school graduation ceremony at 9:20 a.m. If that was the case, what time did the ceremony start?
This whole matter is so absurd and made even more disturbing when one realizes that the [stopped] school bus Eppes passed was in front of Amelia Street School, the school that our children with the most profound disabilities attend. Nor does she acknowledge that issue isn't that she passed a school bus, but that she passed a stopped school bus.
Given that some of the children who attend this school are in wheelchairs that require the bus driver to escort them into the school building, it is possible that the bus driver had good cause not to be in his/her seat.
If Eppes was truly concerned for Richmond's most vulnerable students in this situation, she surely would have parked her car and gone inside the school building to determine why there was an empty -- driverless school bus -- with its engine running sitting in front of the school.
And, if she were possessed of even a scintilla of common sense in this situation, she would surely know better than to state that she intends to contest the citation and to bring Thomas Kranz, the school system's assistant superintendent for Support Services, to her July 7 court hearing on the matter.
Unless it is part of his job description to attend traffic court with errant School Board members and RPS employees who violate traffic law, it certainly appears that Eppes could be attempting to use her elective office for personal gain.
Moreover, if possessed of common sense she might consider asking the Judge to hold her fully responsible for her actions and to use her as an example for all drivers that passing a stopped school bus is not only against the law, it is dangerous and puts children at risk.
*Previous stories revealing Eppes' decided lack of common sense:
I reposted the Richmond Times-Dispatch story below so everyone could read Eppes' claims that the school bus was totally empty and the bus driver was not even on the bus as well as her acknowledgement that she saw the bus' STOP "arm" outstretched. [see below].
Think about this statement. I don't know about the last time you were stopped behind a school bus, but I have always found it impossible to determine whether kids were on the bus unless they smooshed their faces into the back window and waved at me. As to whether kids are elsewhere on the bus -- hard to tell until you are driving past it and happen to look up.
BUT WAIT! You aren't supposed to drive around the bus if the STOP arm is outstretched, so there is no way you can say with accuracy whether there are kids on or NOT on the bus.
And, how can you see all the way to the front of the bus and the driver's seat, if you are in your vehicle behind the bus?
I am also troubled by Eppes' statement that she was LEAVING a pre-school graduation ceremony at 9:20 a.m. If that was the case, what time did the ceremony start?
This whole matter is so absurd and made even more disturbing when one realizes that the [stopped] school bus Eppes passed was in front of Amelia Street School, the school that our children with the most profound disabilities attend. Nor does she acknowledge that issue isn't that she passed a school bus, but that she passed a stopped school bus.
Given that some of the children who attend this school are in wheelchairs that require the bus driver to escort them into the school building, it is possible that the bus driver had good cause not to be in his/her seat.
If Eppes was truly concerned for Richmond's most vulnerable students in this situation, she surely would have parked her car and gone inside the school building to determine why there was an empty -- driverless school bus -- with its engine running sitting in front of the school.
And, if she were possessed of even a scintilla of common sense in this situation, she would surely know better than to state that she intends to contest the citation and to bring Thomas Kranz, the school system's assistant superintendent for Support Services, to her July 7 court hearing on the matter.
Unless it is part of his job description to attend traffic court with errant School Board members and RPS employees who violate traffic law, it certainly appears that Eppes could be attempting to use her elective office for personal gain.
Moreover, if possessed of common sense she might consider asking the Judge to hold her fully responsible for her actions and to use her as an example for all drivers that passing a stopped school bus is not only against the law, it is dangerous and puts children at risk.
*Previous stories revealing Eppes' decided lack of common sense:
Oct 10, 2014
I practically did a spit-take when I read the news that Tichi Pinkney-Eppes, the 9th-District Richmond Public School (RPS) School Board member, may have violated the confidentiality of at least 20 RPS students when she ...
Jun 29, 2013
And, most recently, there's been the strange and sorry saga of the "I'm Gonna Whoop Your Ass” Blues, starring Tichi Pinkney-Eppes (9th-District) and her sidekick, (Not Dr.) Shonda Harris-Muhammed (6th-District), who have ...
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