Donovan Barr, a seventh-grader at South Junior High, begins a long bus ride home by putting on his headphones and turning on his mp3 player. Several students turn to music and portable video games on their bus trips to and from school..

Don’t blame seventh-grader Jordan Rollo for not immediately seeing the trap that had been set for him.

After all, his day had been a long one. Rollo is one of a handful of Lawrence public school students who have to get up early in the morning to make a one-hour or longer bus trip to school.

So maybe that’s why when I asked him whether he ever put off doing his homework until the last-minute — since he knew he would have an hour to do it on his trip into school — he didn’t immediately recognize there’s only one good way to answer that question.

“Well, sometimes,” he said with a smile. Perhaps it was right after that smile, he remembered his folks would be reading this story too. “Just every once in awhile. Not much, really.”

Fellow South Junior High seventh-grader and long haul bus rider Donovan Barr caught on much earlier. He answered with a simple no and a convincing shake of the head.

Actually, I tend to believe both of them. There’s just too much else to do on the bus.

Both students said texting on wireless phones, listening to music on iPods, or playing video games on portable game systems are popular activities to pass the time on a student’s version of a daily commute.

But for those of you who remember simpler times on a school bus, take heart. New electronic gadgets haven’t really changed the scene that much.

“By and large, when they leave school and get on the bus, it is still pretty much social hour,” said Wayne Zachary, manager for First Student, which is the bus contractor for the Lawrence public schools.

Both Barr and Rollo agreed.

“We talk about endless stuff,” Barr said. “Gossip, sports, teachers, homework.”

“Tests,” Rollo added.

“Yeah, tests,” Barr said with a half laugh.

But what neither laugh about is that they both like riding the bus, even though it often times means getting up an about an hour earlier than many South students who live in town.

Rollo lives in the small town of Clinton in western Douglas County, and usually has about an hour commute to South, including a bus transfer at the Wakarusa Valley elementary school. Barr lives near Clinton Lake, and has about a 45-minute trip into school.

“I don’t mind it at all,” said Barr, who said he often plays card games with fellow bus riders. “I have a lot of friends who ride the bus. A lot of them are high schoolers, so it is pretty fun.”

Rollo said he enjoyed the ride too, and said it was an easy trade-off for getting to live in the country.

“You can do just about everything in the country,” Rollo said. “Ride four wheelers, shoot fireworks. Like fireworks are illegal in town, right?”

Zachary, the bus manager, said most students aren’t on the bus as long as Rollo and Barr. He said the district works hard to design routes to keep ride times well below an hour. But he said longer trip times are tough to avoid in the areas near Clinton Lake.

Rollo and Barr said they consider themselves the lucky ones.

“I would much rather be on the bus talking with my friends, than walking home like other kids do,” Barr said.