School Buses

Issue: School Buses

On the island of American Samoa, shortage of school buses has always been an issue. It is nothing new today with an issue of shortage of school buses on the island. The people always questioned the government about it, but no clear statement of why it has been an ongoing issue. It is the government is responsibility to cater school buses to all schools on the island. There are twenty-nine schools in total: Seven High schools (Fagaitua, Leone, Manu’a, Nu’uuli, Samoana, Tafuna, and Kananafou), and 22 elementary schools (A.P. Lutali, Afono, Alataua, Aua, Fagasa Le’atele, Fitiuta, Laulii, Leone Midkiff, Lupelele, Manulele, Masefau, Matafao, Matatula, Mt. Alava, Olomona, Olosega, Pavai’a’I, Siliaga, Taputapu, Tafuna, and Uifa’atali

It is all because they tear-up seat covers and cushions in the school buses and ended up with only the seat medals itself with nothing to sit or lean on. I remember back in the days when I was in elementary school, some of the school buses that picked us up had missing seats. So, we have to stand at where that missing seat is at or even sit on the floor to cover that little area. It was a horrible feeling to stand or sit in that unsafe area because what if there was an accident at that time? I would not make it this far in life. Thinking back to how dangerous it was for us to be in those buses with missing seats, it makes me want to sue the ASDOE for still allowing those buses back in the days. Nowadays, luckily that ASDOE stopped buses that have missing seats because they finally realized that it is not safe for students. As of for now, it is still happening in the school buses and some of the school buses are up for service for the few months or even a whole semester to replace or order a new

Instead of using the money to buy more school buses on island, the money is used for something else. As it stated by Luamany (2015), shortage of school buses affecting k-5 students. One parent did not like the fact that their child who is in the kindergarten was released from school without contacting them. The bus was out of service, and the school releases the students without the parents being contacted for this matter. Based on this same article that was shared by the Samoa News on Facebook, a lot of people were commenting about the fact that a lot of money were spent for the Flag Day event and cannot even get at least one new school bus for kids transportation to school and back home. Some people mentioned that the government spent $89k for the Fautasi race during the Flag Day while they are still waiting for almost four months for their local tax. More people were concerned about this issue because education is the most important part on the island. So, the money and everything should be used to make sure that all needs of every school are