Like the other contributor suggested, I'd like to see UM's banned completely. On a commuter rail line that I have a little familiararity with, there used to be an entire private school class, all traveling on a regular basis, without supervision. The school, the parents and the railroad management couldn't seem to see the potential seriousness of the situation. One of the little girls claimed some weirdo tried to lure her into the restroom. This, in addition to the fact that, with no supervision, they were a constant disciplinary problem. The railroad manangment apparently didn't want to appear as the "bad guy" by denying them passage. I think they eventually broke down and bough a school bus. I haven't seen them lately.
Yesterday, a kid got on the wrong train, going the wrong direction. Parents use public transportation as a means of "day care" and the kids aren't savvy enough to figure out schedules, connection points and all the other details. Who cares, as long as they're out of Dad's (or Mom's) hair for the weekend and he/she can then go scoring for action at the nearest nightspot?
I brought the following over from a similar discussion thread over on "Rumours & News."
This will probably be a problem as long as unaccompanied minors are handled by public transportation.
And the kids aren't always innocent angels either. Amtrak had to modify their unaccompanied minor policy on the Los Angeles-San Diego route to a restriction of handling kids only during daylight hours. Why? Seems there was an incident of an unaccompanied female who befriended some
Marines and got off the train with them, short of her intended destination.
Camp Pendleton --- the undiscovered Southern California vacation destination!
[ 19 August 2001: Message edited by: ONTpax ]