She got what she deserved. This shows that she takes ownership for her misstake. We need more judges like this in this country. The judge did not go over board. I thought the punishment was lenient. You do the wrong, face the consequences. PERIOD.

No sympathy here. A year in jail would have been more to my liking. These "idiots" are ENDANGERING THE LIVES OF OUR KIDS.

Dear Tom,

I think she got off easy. I think she should have had a month of sign wearing, 160 hours of community service, and more financial penalties.

And I do congratulate the judge on the sign idea. It was great. She is an idiot!

Randy Mazie

No one likes to be humiliated when they make mistakes, but I am happy to hear that the law is enforced. It sends a good message to the community - we care about the safety of the children. She could have run over a student; therefore this sentence did not go too far. Where I live, the police run our school bus stop signs and there is no enforcement when you report incidents.

If the punishment for committing a dangerous crime is only 2 hours of carrying a sign I might be tempted to rob a bank, especially if I would be allowed to keep my "ill-gotten gains".

I think that she didn't get all of the punishment that she should have. I think that having her license suspended for 30 days with a $250 fine, along with carrying the sign for 2 days isn't enough, but that was the decision of the judge and that is fine. After seeing the footage from NBC news, she should be made to take a defensive/safe drivers course and jail time. The price of a life, if someone were to have stepped outside of the apartmenet door and into the side or in front of her vehicle would not even compare to the above punishment. I, like many other drivers take bus and student safety seriously and this act of stupidity is unacceptable.

I believe that if more people had to do this type of service perhaps people would learn the law and obey it. There are only two things that scare me as a bus driver. 1. crossing a rail road track and have the lights and gates not working. 2. have someone run my stop arm and hit one of my students.

If it had been at your chills bus stop or if a child had got run over them how would you feel? I do not understand why someone has to get hurt or killed before some people think you should act. If people were made to do this there more there would be less crime, not only for traffic laws but all laws.

She should have been fined $5000, lost her license for a year, and had to do 100 hours community service in a children's hospital. Maybe THAT would get her attention.

I am a Transportation Supervisor for my local school board. I am in complete agreement with the punishment this woaman received. Every single day in my county we have no less than 3-4 vehicles running our school bus red lights. Our county Sheriffs Dept has started a program where they will either have an officer actually ride one of my school buses and have another officer follow back behind the bus to catch these people. There is no amount of fine that can replace a child. What if they hit a child and then found out it was their own niece,nephew or grandchild?

Yes and no. However, the personal decision this motorist made by driving up upon a pedestrian side walk to obviously pass a school bus was her choice to disobey traffic laws. She got caught by the school bus video. The wide publication and publicity to the effect that school buses have such film that in fact judges and jury's can view in a court of law is a good thing. Some good has came from the wide spread news coverage. Dan - from Indiana.

It is not too stiff when you think of what the consequences of killing a student would have been.

I think it's a wonderful way to raise awareness about the huge problem faced every day by school buses and the children they carry. The reason you stop is to protect our vulnerable little ones. Sorry if it's an inconvenience to you.

This wasn't punishment - it was public service.

The only problem I have is with the wording of the sign. It does not personalize her commission of the violation. Passers-by would not identify with her because they would not see themselves as ever being "idiots".

A better statement would simply be "I PASSED A STOPPED SCHOOL BUS". That would inform everyone of her personal responsibility - and that they could potentially be the one standing on the corner. (They could still think that she was an idiot for doing it.)

What if, as a public service, every traffic violator had to notify the community of their failure (in addition to the other legal consequences)? Would other drivers get the message? "I TEXTED AND DROVE" - "I USED MY CELL PHONE AND DROVE" "I RAN THIS RED LIGHT" "I WAS SPEEDING" -----

"I PASSED A STOPPED SCHOOL BUS." Not 'cruel and unusual punishment.' Positive and personal public service. Isn't that food for thought?

I think that the sign is a deterrent to OTHER drivers and 2 days isn't nearly enough. It should have been 2 days per week for a month at various locations! There can be zero tolerance for this stuff... And if you ask me, he license should have been revoked for 6 months and then only weekend driving for an additional 6 months. At least for a year, the students would be a little safer than before.

Several years ago in my town an elderly woman decided she couldn't wait for a stopped school bus, hit the gas and drove on the rt. side of the bus. She plowed into a large group of students who were loading onto the bus causing 3-4 serious injuries. I think anyone who does what the idiot driver did should serve some jail time or do serious community service with children. She could have killed someone and got off way too easy!

Not very creative, in my opinion, mimics sentences handed out by judges to publicly shame offenders. Some other examples from around the country... ( http://news.yahoo.com/stole-9-old-court-ordered-shaming-195632202.html;_ylc=X3oDMTEwamRtM2JlBF9TAzIwMjM4Mjc1MjQEZW1haWxJZAMxMzUyODU0NTE4 ).

The person subjected to this public entertainment was smart enough not to engage the press, yet did something so dumb to end up a target in this pubic spectacle. Not much of a guess for those of us that have actually worked with kids long enough know that intentional public humiliation can backfire somehow. Hardin nailed it when she said to the media, “I don’t owe y’all nothing. I’m not getting sucked up into this. Go away from me. I’m gonna serve this sentence and get on with my life, like you all should have done a long time ago.” Her terse defiance seems actually rejecting the entertainment value some are getting out of this public spectacle. Suppose it's okay as long as we don't go medieval and colonial American with stocks and such. ( http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/village-stocks-2/view/?service=0 ). The concept of public stocks ended centuries ago mostly because it didn't work very well back then. Doomed to repeat in some form until history and human nature is understood and worked with rather than against. Would have been more effective to stay with the brain science, ordered some jail time, and while in jail put to use earning her keep in supervised public service cleaning weeds from sidewalks and debris from ditches.

It was not sufficient! She obviously shows no concern for student safety or the law! Wearing the "sign" looked to be only an inconvenience for her, the serious endangerment of pedestrians and students does not seem to sink in. I believe in spite of her conviction and the results she still does not get it. She is still a hazard to others using the streets.

I personally think it did not go far enough. There is no reason why someone would do something like this. Common since will tell you a school bus stopped with lights on and stop sign out children are around. She will not have been stoped no more than a minute or two. I personally think she should humiliate herself and also do community service for the city and school district plus her driving privilege should be suspended for a year and spend jail time. Not only is this against the law it is just down right dangerous. This also need to make news world wide. She also should have to apologize to each child and their family for being so stupid. I honestly believe any bus should have the same rules whether it be a school bus , church bus , charter bus , transit bus , casino bus , greyhound , ect... They all deal with precious lives.

When sonething like this happens, we as the public do not usually just read about the crime and not the punishment. The important thing is did she learn or did anybody other than her learn you donot pass a stopped school bus. I just read a woman was sentenced to one year in jail and fourteen years probation for running over and killing a seventeen year old student that just got off her school bus. Is a year in jail enough punishment for the girls parents? Now comes the bleeding heart liberals answer, oh you don't know what its like to kill somebody or you don't know the circumstances as to why she passed the bus. Whats the difference, a seventeen is still dead because of carelessness. Its just like alcohol abuse it won't stop.

Boy, dem reporters sho' axed her a lot o' questions!