New bill protects children on buses

Earlier this month, Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law a comprehensive school bus safety bill designed to enact harsher penalties for those who fail to yield to stopped school buses.

But the bill, called Nathan's Law, is designed to do more than just that, said Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ellisville), who authored the law. He said that part of the goal was to draw hope from tragedy.

That's because the genesis of the law is rooted in the death of North Jones Elementary School kindergarten student Nathan Key. The 5-year-old was struck and killed in December 2009 when a driver passed the stopped school bus Nathan was attempting to exit.

Nathan's Law goes into effect on July 1, 2011. It will create a 10-foot buffer zone around school buses. It will also rework the state's aggravated assault statute so that striking a child who is attempting to enter or exit a stopped school bus is considered a felony.

Students and school bus drivers will be affected as well. Those seeking an operator's license to drive a school bus will require safety testing. A school bus safety education curriculum will also be introduced for grades K-3.

McDaniel reintroduced the bill in January after it died in conference last year.

At that time, Lori Key, Nathan's mother, told the Laurel Leader Call that she blamed Rep. Ed Blackmon (D-Canton) for killing the bill because he failed to bring it back up for consideration.

"We have one man in the Mississippi legislature that has killed a bill that may help to save the lives of other Mississippi children," she said.

But she vowed to continue fighting.

"We are not done," she said. "We are definitely not through fighting and won't be until stronger laws are in place to protect our children."

Perseverance paid off for the proponents of Nathan's law in the end, however; the bill passed almost unanimously, with only Rep. Gary Chism (R-Columbus) voting ‘nay.'

"I don't know why he voted ‘no' and I really don't care," McDaniel said. "That's a vote he'll have to answer for, I suppose."

"This has been a long, hard fight," Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant said in an article that appeared on schoolbusfleet.com. "But [it] was worth every effort to provide a safer environment for our children."

Bryant praised Nathan's family for being "instrumental" in seeing Nathan's law through.

The overwhelming victory, McDaniel said, illustrates the nature of politics that killed the bill last year.

"We got everything we wanted and we should have gotten it last year," he said, "but for whatever reason, politics played a role."

This time, however, Blackmon supported the law.

"The only real change was the fact that Rep. Blackmon on the house side decided to negotiate in good faith," McDaniel said. "And he ended up conceding about 95 percent of the original law."

One provision that did not make it into the final bill was one that would have prevented drivers in a school crossing zone from operating mobile devices unless parked.

But McDaniel is just glad that the bulk of the bill – one he has described as being very special to him – is finally law.

While developing the legislation, McDaniel conducted legal research and met with experts. But he also had a chance to get to know Nathan's family.

"In watching their struggles, we have all been reminded that when we face the death of a loved one, we come face to face with the power of God," McDaniel said, writing for the Laurel Leader Call.

A new law would never replace Nathan, McDaniel wrote. But through it, "he has touched an entire state."

"We now know for sure," McDaniel wrote, "one man really can make a difference, even if he was just a little boy."