Aspen View Public Schools superintendent Brian LeMessurier was right when he referred to the prank call that disrupted school bus service last Tuesday as “nothing less than public mischief”.
A prankster who called the local radio station and claimed that school bus service had been cancelled resulted in much confusion, as the false cancellation was announced and then later retracted.
As a result, some school buses picked up their kids and then turned around and dropped them off again.
The individual who made this call probably didn’t think about the result of his or her actions; save for the potential of getting a day off school. They failed to consider the children returned to their homes on a brutally cold winter’s morning. What if their parents had already left for work, assuming their children were safe and warm at school? What if those children had been locked out of their homes? On a cold winter’s day in rural Alberta, that’s a frightening prospect.
It’s unlikely that this prankster will ever be identified and properly called to account for their actions. One can only hope that in the future, the guilty party (and others inclined to such pointless acts of stupidity) will look beyond themselves and examine the potential consequences the next time they consider pulling a prank like this one.
