Killeen, TX, 2022: A talking bus, law enforcement guests and assemblies urging kindness make up part of this year’s annual Killeen ISD Safety Week.

This is the 28th year that schools are setting aside time at the end of January to remind students and staff members of a variety of safety messages.

Timber Ridge Elementary School welcomed back speaker Carolyn Brown, who presented to students Wednesday during the day and to parents in the evening about the power of kindness.

She began with some vocabulary. People of all ages can be rude or even mean, but those actions don’t necessarily qualify as bullying, which is now a legal term and implies more targeted and repeated behavior.

Brown, a former elementary teacher now associated with the Texas PTA addresses 35,000 school children a year.

“It’s important for us to pinpoint the behavior that we are asking our students to avoid,” she said.

She has found in her eight years as a speaker that a lot of adults don’t understand that today’s students have access to social media that allows them to permanently record messages that can have a detrimental effect.

Brown told a personal story how she attended a party in middle school in 1994 and a boy criticized her, causing pain that she remembers to this day.

That comment, she said, was not recorded and it’s likely that no one but her remembers it. Today, though, a similar action might be shared instantly and quickly make the rounds through a community.

Students, parents and educators all can play a role in helping to navigate through and correct hurtful behavior.

“Bullying was an inconvenience,” Brown said refering to her years growing up. “Now, it is considered a major mental health emergency.”

When a student sees someone hurting someone, they should tell an adult and should also choose to be kind, encouraging the peer who is hurt and urging peers doing the hurting to stop, she explained.

She suggested using “true and provable” statements like ‘I think you are being rude,’ ‘I don’t like what you said,’ or just ‘stop.’ She also suggested taking time to listen to others and to make positive statements that spread kindness.

At Hay Branch Elementary School on Wednesday, a team of KISD transportation trainers and secretary Nancy Flores used the remote-controlled Buster the bus to remind students to use safe practices at bus stops and on buses.

The popular miniature bus is equipped with all the lights and the stop arm that actual buses have, plus it has wide eyes and a mechanical voice.

Buster and his human counterparts urged students to arrive 5 minutes early to their stop, to keep items like backpacks out of the aisle, to keep from making loud noises and to stay in their seats.

Across Killeen schools, law enforcement officers are demonstrating their vehicles and explaining their roles in the community.

KISD police officer Dawin Vazquez, one of two bicycle officers in the district’s police department, shared with students at Maude Moore Wood Elementary on Thursday the basics of staying safe while riding a bicycle.

The biggest safety measure, he said, is to wear a helmet and to make sure it is designed for bicycle riding and is fully attached and fits.

The officer also recommended protective clothing and closed-toed shows and told students to make sure they ride with reflectors and only ride bikes that are the correct size.