DEKALB JUNCTION, N.Y. (AP) - In a face-off between New York regulators and a squirrel, penguin and butterfly, the bureaucrats blinked.
The state Department of Transportation has backed off a demand that a northern New York school district remove the colorful critter decals used to help kindergarteners find their buses.
The Syracuse Post-Standard (https://bit.ly/2r3HnNS ) reports that the DOT warned Hermon-DeKalb Central Schools in May that its buses wouldn’t pass inspection because the law prohibits signs on them. The law is aimed at advertising.
District Superintendent Mark White asked state Sen. Patti Ritchie to help. Republican Ritchie contacted DOT Commissioner Matthew Driscoll, who reversed the order.
Ritchie said in a statement that any district in the state is now free to use turtles, dinosaurs and other animals to help their littlest pupils find their way home.
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