J. TODD FOSTER: School Buses, Being A ‘Republican’ Paper and Expletives

For my 4-year-old, the coolest thing about riding the school bus for the very first time was not the excitement of his first day of school. And it was not traveling in the same big yellow machine that has carried his brother to school for two years.

“I don’t have to wear my seat belt, Daddy!” Jake said early Thursday, minutes before boarding his bus for his first day of pre-kindergarten at Abingdon Elementary School. “I may go flying through the air!”
“Please don’t,” I told Jakey.

This childhood rite of passage can be a traumatic event for children, but our boys were unflappable – Jake on Thursday and Tyler in August 2005 in Augusta County, Va.

There were plenty of tears that day four years ago, but they were pouring from the eyes of Mommy and Daddy as Tyler’s bus pulled away. He was not yet 3 years old and was ebullient in the face of an experience that many of us still look upon with dread from our own childhoods.

Four years later, it was Tyler who helped his little brother on the bus and sat next to him for the 15-minute ride to Abingdon Elementary. And it was Tyler who agreed to escort Jake to his classroom.

For the first time this school year, we leave both of our boys in the capable and professional hands of the staff at Abingdon Elementary School, specifically Principal Andy Cox; Jake’s teacher, Robin McClellan; Tyler’s teacher for the second time in three years, Lisa Weikel; Jake’s teacher aide, Kim Miller; and bus driver Sadie Diana Gobble.

To the cafeteria workers, I’ll give you a fair warning: Jake might require a little extra macaroni and cheese. After dinner on Aug. 19, I took the boys to see the truck race at Bristol Motor Speedway. They were more interested in the culinary experience offered in our suite.

Jake had a German sausage hot dog, two big cookies, a brownie, two Sierra Mists and chased it all with 20 bite-sized Milky Ways. Even the visitors to our suite seemed more interested in Jake’s antics than the actual race, especially after the chocolate-fueled Jake started doing snow angels on the carpeted floor. (Thank God both Jake and Tyler crashed two miles from home, a fitting end to any race at BMS.)

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A female caller Friday chastised us for running the story headlined “Mourners pay respects to Kennedy” on the bottom of A2 and not the front page.

“I always knew you were a Republican paper,” she said.

Aside from the fact we’re independent, that we equally offend both political parties and the fact this woman’s quote might surprise more than a few Republicans, here’s a simple explanation for the story play: Sen. Ted Kennedy had died three days before, so it hardly qualified as front-page news. The follow-up story ran where most death stories run, on the Obituaries page.

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Finally, I owe you readers a profound apology for a monumental lapse in judgment committed last week. On Monday, we ran a front-page story about the exodus from Bristol Motor Speedway. The story jumped to A8 and quoted a race fan using the word s—-, although it was spelled out.

S—- happens. But it shouldn’t happen in a family newspaper.

I appreciate the lecture from a school teacher who said he could not use that edition in his classroom for obvious reasons. And I assured him as I will you that the s—- hit the fan after he drew my attention to the expletive.

J. Todd Foster is managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier and can be reached at or (276) 645-2513.