Children who are facing a potentially dangerous situation or are in some sort of trouble can get on any Beeline bus and notify the driver of the problem. The driver would make a phone call to the bus dispatcher on the child's behalf.
Dispatch would then contact one of the Salvation Army's counselors, who are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to meet with and assist the youth. Youth can remain on the "safe" bus until the counselor arrives.
"If they have a problem, they'll see the logo and they can tell the driver they need help," said Jano Baghdanian, city traffic and transportation administrator. "We're the first city in L.A. County that is working with [the Salvation Army] to implement this program."
The Safe Place logo is a diamond shape with a yellow background.
In the center of the logo is the silhouette of an adult embracing a child within a home.
A kickoff ceremony was held Thursday morning at Roosevelt Middle School to jump-start the program.
"The whole school district is very supportive of this effort," said Roosevelt Middle School Assistant Principal Mark Brown. "I think it's absolutely a wonderful idea so students can recognize and know where they can go in a crisis situation."
Glendale Police officials also felt the program was a good way to improve safety for local youth.
"It's an excellent program and it's nice to know that if there is a person who needs to get to a safe place, the buses will allow that person to board and be taken somewhere — wherein travel might have been an obstacle before," said Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz.
