Children will be heading to school in the coming days, some of them for the first time.

It may seem to be a scary journey for kids riding the bus from one town to another. Highland Elementary Principal Jane O’Leary explains how the district is assuring safety for students living in Ainsworth, “There is going to be a Highland staff member supervising that bus stop to start out the year, because one of the worries kids have is, ‘Am I getting to the right place?’. Especially the kids that are in town that normally walk to school and don’t have to worry about getting on a bus. I’ve had some kids share with me that they’re a little worried about that.”

O’Leary compliments that Ainsworth bus driver Mark Thompson will do a great job of watching out for kids. The communities of Riverside and Ainsworth are watchful over kids walking and riding their bikes to school, O’Leary says, but she mentions kids can step up when they see something wrong occurring, “We need to be watching out for each other and helping people when we see that there’s a problem and reminding people about safety. And I’m not just talking adults to children but children to children, because kids do walk in groups. And if someone’s choosing to do something not safe, I think, it’d be a good time to step and say ‘I don’t think you should be doing that right now because, etc.’.”

O’Leary says that when going to school children should listen to supervisors that are outside the entrances, walk bikes to the school, and pay attention to crosswalks.