It’s 8:10 AM,  you’re running late to school constantly checking the bus schedule to find that the bus is arriving in less than five minutes, so you run out the door struggling to put your shoes on while racing to the bus stop. The bus arrives and to your surprise, you find that the bus is filled with other students who are running late to school as well. To some this maybe a nightmare, but for others it’s a sigh of relief that they will be making it to school three minutes late.

Taking the bus may seem like a simple task for most of us; however, Emely Jimenez (12th grade), a student at Birmingham Community Charter High School, sat down with me to explain the true complications and frustrations of taking the bus to school every morning.  She began by opening up about how she has been taking the bus to school ever since she was a freshman at Birmingham. The number one issue she faces is not getting enough sleep. After she spends most of her night doing homework or studying, she then has to wake up at 5:45 a.m. to allow herself enough time to get ready, eat, and walk to the bus stop on time. She said she roughly gets around five to six hours of sleep daily, which impacts her concentration during class. 

One thing that Emely does enjoy about taking public transportation to school is the extra time that allows her to study, do homework, or even meditate. She explained that she tries occupying herself because it takes her one hour and twenty-four minutes to get to school. 

Emely then explained how sometimes the time it takes to get to school may increase due to traffic, or the busses running late. She then added that administrators should be more sympathetic to those who are late and take the bus as unexpected issues may occur while on the bus. 

The idea of wanting the administrators to be more understanding to those who are late because they take the bus resulted in me sitting down with Kevin Carrillo (12), another student at Birmingham.  Carrillo gets dropped off at school by his father, and I asked him what was his opinion about the idea of teachers and staff being more lenient to those who are tardy because they take the bus. He also agreed with Emely Jimenez because he believes that those who take the bus really have no faster way of transportation other than taking the bus.

So should students who take the bus be excused from their tardies because they take the bus? I sat down with Ms. Wettels, a science teacher here at Birmingham, and she disagreed with the idea of administrators being lenient to those who take the bus. She felt students have the control to wake up earlier and get on the bus earlier to be able to get to school on time. 

She thought that students should take action by waking up earlier and that is what will prepare you to succeed once we transition into college.  She concluded by stating that all the energy we put in today will soon pay off in the future.