From Watts Up With That?

By Eric Worrall

h/t MGUY; Children’s fingers, toes and noses are so overrated…

Parents raise concerns over heat issues in electric school buses in Lake Shore Central School District

Rob Petree
Fri, December 19, 2025 at 8:10 AM GMT+10

ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. (WIVB) — On the heels of a statewide mandate requiring all school bus purchases in New York State be electric by 2027, parents in the Lake Shore Central School District are speaking out, claiming some bus drivers are turning the heat down, or off completely, in an attempt to conserve battery life on their electric school buses.

WIVB News 4 has received several calls from concerned parents in the school district, which covers parts of Angola, Brant, and Derby, regarding their child’s bus trips to and from school, claiming they’re coming in freezing when they get home after getting off the bus.

The kids are coming home saying their bus is freezing cold and the parents are giving them hand warmers.

…

“The bus broke down on route,” explained Chris Lampman, another concerned parent whose son allegedly had to stand outside in the freezing cold as a result. “They deployed a substitute bus, and the bus was more than 30 minutes late. My son stood outside for over 35 minutes waiting for a bus that wasn’t coming. Some of those kids are on there for upwards of a half hour or more while the bus makes its route. There’s no reason that the kids should freeze for all that time.”

…

“My grandson came home from school last week when it was 23 degrees,” Urbino stated. “He said they didn’t have heat. He came in cold, and I told him, I said, ‘isn’t the bus warm?’ And he said ‘no, they can’t put the heat on because it drains the battery.’”

…Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/parents-raise-concerns-over-heat-221015103.html

The school district claims elsewhere in the quoted article that policy is to keep the buses warm, and that the buses have enough battery capacity to complete all required routes.

If this claim heating is being switched off is true, the risk to the health of kids is unconscionable. Not everyone is wealthy enough to afford all the warm weather clothes their kids might need. Young kids especially can lose gloves and hats, or forget to put them on. A kid who boards the bus with a cold might have pneumonia by the time they get off.

There is also a risk to the health of the drivers. Sitting still in hard frost temperatures while driving a bus is a potential DVT, frostbite, stroke and heart attack risk.

I don’t blame the drivers – they are likely just doing what they have to, to ensure the kids aren’t exposed too cold for an even longer time while waiting for a replacement bus. But if anything, bad happens, I’m sure the driver will be blamed for violating policy by switching off the heating.