Harrison County School District hosts training session for school bus drivers
GULFPORT, Miss. (WXXV) –An important training took place in Harrison County Thursday, leading to hundreds of bus drivers receiving important safety tips.
WXXV News 25’s Elizabeth Keen shows us some important technology the Harrison County School District is using to help students stay safe as they commute to school.
It’s a harrowing moment caught on camera.
Video from the Harrison County School District shows a dangerous moment that occurred in April: a car drives off the road to pass a Harrison County school bus, then speeds by on the right. Thankfully, no one was injured.
“Unfortunately, we have an issue here in Harrison County School District — and it’s not just here, it’s across the country — where motorists run the school bus stop sign,” HCSD Transportation Director Tad Shaw said. “One of the most dangerous portions of the transportation deal is when kids have to cross in front of the road.”
The camera that captured the incident is a stop-arm camera, and it is one of many cameras that Harrison County School District buses are equipped with to keep students safe. These cameras can even lead to penalties for drivers who disobey traffic laws relating to school buses.
“We have cameras on our buses,” bus driver Michael Necaise explained. “We also have exterior cameras on our buses to take license plate photographs, should someone pass the school bus when the stop arm is out. We’ve got new procedures for filling out an affidavit to do that — to charge that driver with passing the bus with the stop arm out. In order to ensure safety on a bus, we also have dash cameras. We have four cameras inside of the bus. The buses have backup cameras now as well. We’ve got a lot of technology on these buses.”
Cameras were just one topic discussed at a training session hosted by the HCSD Transportation Department on Thursday afternoon at West Harrison High School. It brought together hundreds of bus drivers within the district, all responsible for transporting over 10,000 students every day.
“Training and safety is one of our top priorities, and every year at the start of school, we get all of our drivers together and we review safety procedures and protocols with them, because ultimately our main goal is to keep kids safe,” Shaw explained.
According to the National Safety Council, nine school bus passengers died and roughly 5,000 more were injured in school bus related accidents in 2023. The NSC also reports that 16 total deaths — involving drivers, occupants and pedestrians — were caused by distracted driving.
“I see it everyday,” Necaise said. “People on their cell phones, people distracted driving… and it’s just not worth it. If you’ve got a child crossing the street, you can ruin your life, you can ruin that whole family by not paying attention when you’re driving.”
For most of these drivers, providing children with a reliable and safe form of transportation is more than just a job duty, it’s a personal commitment.
“When you’re on a route, you learn the children, you learn their families,” Necaise explained. “You get to know these children — generations of these children — and as the younger siblings come up, they’re always excited to get on the bus because you’ve made a positive impact on their older siblings. It’s very, very fulfilling to be able to take these children back and forth to school and see their growth and their progress.”
