We are moms and dads who have children with diverse different abilities. We write with a sense of urgency for help getting the Boulder Valley School District School Board to provide working cameras on the special education buses that our kids ride twice, every day. To date, BVSD’s current school board does not support this critical safeguard for our families.

We are writing to ask readers — our neighbors and friends, families and community — of the Daily Camera to speak up during this election cycle, and help us protect all children. Currently, there are no cameras on BVSD’s special education buses. Some of our kids cannot speak and self-report abuse. There are no safeguards for our most vulnerable youth, traveling each day in enclosed spaces alone or with peers just like them.

As you may know from reading the Camera, a wonderful family in our community, Kamala and Vhim Rai, owners of Boulder’s restaurant, the Taj, saw their adult son, Shiva, suffer horrific abuse from a trained aide in the St. Vrain Valley School District, who had her background checked, and who was hired to protect their son. Instead, she kicked, hit and sprayed Lysol into their son’s face. There is no training that can deter such a dangerous person. And her son never showed any aggression. Regardless, no child or vulnerable adult deserves such terror, pain and malice from a caretaker.

Kamala will never forget the footage, but because of it, she knows definitively what happened.

There are many benefits of cameras to the school district as well, because such clarity of facts can debunk any false claims of abuse or sexual assault, or confirm them.

We know that the vast majority of school bus drivers and aides are kind, amazing people who are dedicated to our kids. But in such difficult times, even one bad apple can ruin a school district’s reputation and devastate a family forever.

Please take one simple act of compassion to ask BVSD and all school boards — and especially those running for school boards — to install working, continuously running cameras on BVSD and all districts’ school buses that serve voiceless, vulnerable children.

Julie and Tim Marshall live in Lafayette. Also signing onto this guest opinion are Amy and Joe Arroyo, Birte Kalz and Joel Brokaw, Anastasia and Bob Lawhead, Sharon and Derek Cochems, Lora Cantele, Debra Fitzgibbons, Paul and Carol Cardosi, Dara Purdy, Ju Sheng, Natalia Mendiola and Joseph Stefan, Kristin and Brian Farr, Bala and Rajeev Poduval, Gwen Ritchie, Gretchen and David Zetoony, Dan and Kori Bowers, Kate Marringa and Shawn Ropp, Joyce Welch, Suzanne and Jared Kohlmann, Whitney Pinion and Derek Briggs, Jennifer and Mark Maybee, John and Jill Sheldon, Liz and Dave Vaillancourt, and Zoe Palmos of Boulder; Dawnell and David Porcaro of Broomfield; Wendy Rainford and Steve Mckee, Samantha Kohn-Bardelman and Gregory Bardelman, Karen and Matt Wilkenson, Liana and John Lohmeier, and Scott and Virginia Brown of Louisville; Wendy and Bryan VanKonynenburg, Keith and Jennifer Hendershot and Quinn Finn of Longmont; Julie and Mike Schneider of Superior, Matt and Melissa Holovach and Emmy and Patrick Conroy of Erie; Michelle and Jon Moore of Lafayette; Gerrie Frohne of Lakewood; Megan and James Slattery of Littleton; and Mel and Nick Persion of Fort Collins.