Police report near bomb scare, passed school bus

GENTRY -- Police reported one person cited for passing a stopped school bus on Arkansas Highway 59 and a near bomb scare at Gentry Primary School on Sept. 14.

According to police, the false alarm occurred when an ammo box was spotted in the bushes near the primary school. Not taking any chances, Benton County's bomb squad was summoned and police were about to move students and staff to the other side of the building, away from the suspicious box, when they were told by a staff member the ammo box was placed there as a part of a scavenger hunt.

According to Keith Smith, Gentry's chief of police, times have changed and people cannot do things they may have done in years gone by without causing alarm and suspicion.

School Bus Passing

Mary Harris, 70, of Gravette, was cited Sept. 14, for allegedly passing a southbound school bus which had stopped and activated its emergency lights and stop sign at Meeker Street. Harris was allegedly driving northbound at the time, and a Gentry police officer was following the school bus, as Gentry officers often do, when the alleged violation occurred.

According to Arkansas law, any motorist who illegally passes a school bus -- even if nothing happens and everyone is OK -- is guilty of a misdemeanor. If convicted, a person can go to jail for 90 days, lose his or her driver's license for up to a year, be assigned up to 400 hours of community service and pay a fine of up to $1,000. Drivers who kill a student can be found guilty of negligent homicide, a class C felony.

According to Smith, people often think that Arkansas Highway 59, because of the turning lane, is a divided highway. "It is not," Smith said, and drivers, even if they are on the other side of the highway, across from the bus, are required to stop when a school bus has its red lights flashing and its stop sign extended.

Bus drivers, on the other hand, have the responsibility to discharge students in a safe manner -- letting students off buses in locations with good visibility and activating warning lights for a sufficient time to allow nearby drivers to prepare to stop before activating the red lights and discharging students.