A Student Transportation Veteran Retires

After 40 years experience working with children, parents, drivers, and fellow administrators, Corbett Gibson shares some perspective on K–12 with Seon.

Fellow administrators describe Corbett Gibson as a tremendous leader in the field of student transportation. Gibson has worked in South Carolina public schools for 40 years — the last eight years as transportation director for the Clover School District.

The Clover School District is located in the Piedmont region of South Carolina. It includes 10 schools, representing a student population of about 6,500. Gibson became a teacher in South Carolina public schools (School District of Aiken County) after college. After teaching, he served as a guidance counselor (Richland School District #1) and program consultant (SC Department of Education). In 1980, he had the opportunity to become the assistant superintendent of York School District #1. Gibson retired from that position in June 2002, but he knew he wasn’t ready to fully retire. Next, he became the Clover School District’s transportation director.
Gibson finally retired this past summer. Given his extensive experience with students and student transportation, Seon thought it would be a good idea to ask him a few questions before he disappears traveling with his wife.

You’ve been working with K–12 for a long time. What is the difference between children now and children then?

Kids will always be kids no matter what the era. One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed over the years is that kids nowadays have less respect for authority and seem to value property less. They are certainly more informed today due to the information age.

What concerns you most about children and transportation?

Children do not recognize the safety hazards that they cause with their misbehavior and unnecessary loud noise while riding a bus.

Is this why your school district became interested in mobile surveillance?

Our district sought a resource to help administrators with bus discipline, and also to monitor driver behavior and habits. There are plenty of real-world situations that video helps solve.
In one case, a driver detected writing on a seat-back and wanted to gather some evidence. She knew who was assigned to that seat, but wanted to check the video recording.  Sure enough, the two riders spent lots of time “hovering” so they couldn’t be seen from the driver’s mirror. With this evidence, the driver confronted the riders, and they confessed.

In another instance, a school administrator received a call from a father who wanted to know what the school was going to do because his child had been assaulted by another rider on the bus. I reviewed the video and detected that his child had tripped the other rider as the other rider was leaving. This caused a physical confrontation, of course. We had two wrongs in this picture. The administrator also viewed the video to confirm the riders’ identities and called the father with this new information. The father apologized for his earlier call, and indicated that he’d dealt with his child, who hadn’t told the truth.

How has security on school buses changed or evolved?

The video era has certainly modernized security for school buses—both on and off the bus. In years past, the eyes of the driver were the only security, and those eyes were focused on driving ahead. Now with modern video systems, the driver can concentrate a great deal more on driving, and the camera system helps observe happenings on the bus.

When did you start working with Seon?

We installed a Seon system in August 2006.  We assessed several video systems and determined that Seon was the best fit for our district’s needs.

Why do you prefer Seon over other mobile surveillance vendors?

We have had good service to date from the products, as well as good customer support from both Seon and its vendor, Carter Electronics Service Co., Inc. in Summerville, South Carolina. The system has been reliable.

What is the future of security on school buses?

It’s wide open, but manufacturers will need to continue to find ways to provide products that are fool-proof and can take the wear-and-tear that goes with years of travel on school buses.

What are some of the greatest challenges that transportation directors face?

The top issues are keeping the bus driver corps fully staffed, getting students safely to and from school in a timely manner, and handling parent complaints about bus stop locations.

What did you enjoy most about being a transportation director?

I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to be out of office checking bus situations across the district… bus stops, routing issues, road conditions, etc.  Being a people person, I’ve enjoyed the many contacts with drivers and other school administrators.

Seon would like to thank Mr. Gibson for his time and perspective. We wish him the very best in his well-earned retirement years.