this otherwise would have been a misdemeanor battery but for the fact that the state charge this as having been committed against an employee of a public public transportation employee of the illinois criminal code elevates simple batteries the term public transportation that charm public transportation has long been recognized to encompass something very a very specific type of transportation the commonly understood meaning when you say the term public transportation comes to mind city boss says mass transit systems trains essentially companies or entities that provide transportation to the general public all members of the general public who are able and willing to pay a particular fare that's being charged that's not the case in terms of the school bus in terms of public transportation everybody can get on the public transportation bus nobody can get on the school  to a particular place that a particular time that's very different if i or any member of the general public wanted to catch a ride on a school bus we would simply be unable to do so the general public is not even allowed on the school bus if they're willing to pay a fair to get from point a to point b the term public transportation in terms of what generally comes to mind is consistent with the dictionary definition of public and this whole notion that public transportation is associated with the general public the dictionary defines public transportation as buses trains charging a set fare and running on fixed routes especially one state owned and then when that's read in conjunction with the definition of the term public the term public is defined in the dictionary as ever concerning the people as a whole open to were shared by all the people and that is not what occurs on school buses in addition the legislature has repeatedly treated school buses and modes of public transportation as two distinct concepts in several places in the statute in the downstate public transportation act in three particular places it defines public transportation as being available to the general public and then in the vehicle code which defines a school define public transportation agency as something available to the general public at the legislature believe that school buses were included within the purview of public transportation this separate distinct unhandsome for school would be surplusage so clearly the legislature sees school buses and public transportation as two separate and distinct concepts it does the same thing in the code of corrections in terms of sentencing and cements in aggravation where provides that there are one sentence  for public transportation and again as in the criminal code the code of corrections then defines in that particular section of the statute public transportation as meaning transportation that's available to the general public and  finally this distinction between school buses and public transportation just reflected in case law dealing with tort immunity and civil liability the law for over an almost a century has drawn a line between common carriers carriers with a definitive test for common carriers being whether the carrier serves all of the public alike and that is simply not what happens with school buses in fact in the states approve it talks a little bit about benson crew the and talks about the three characteristics that made the right of it carrier in that case distinctly private and those three characteristics are transports on a special contract refuses to transport some items and doesn't hold itself out to carry goods for the general public but that is exactly what occurred in this particular case this school bus that was transferred that was operated by late last lash for student transported on special contract with the school to transport the students it refused to transport some items in that it would not transport members of the general public who wanted to catch a ride on the bus and it didn't hold itself out to carry goods for the general public it didn't hold itself out as a as a public transportation a mode of transportation it didn't have stops that it made like a city bus that that that the general public could get to could get on and off of at best the state's parsing of the language in the statute makes the statute take us in if you sort of parse the statute that children are members of the public and therefore transporting children is transportation of the public at best what the state's interpretation of the statute doesn't this case it makes is makes the statute ambiguous in why of this vast array of authority that draws a distinction between school buses and public transportation had in the case of a statute that is in big us which i supai now your honor i don't think it does because that body in case of these deals with public way the legislative purpose behind that statute is to protect the general public regardless of whether the parking lot that they're group of group of individuals so i don't think that that that that really undermines the argument on fact i think it probably strengthens it a little bit that that that the legislature is pretty clear that it wants to go after protecting public place places and chose not to include school buses in this keep clear language of the special is in the business of caring people of public or higher children are part of the public statutory difference so the that that explains but when you're talking about a definition are you are in one word one way in one situation and another one notices you look to the language of the statue the terms of the statues the application of the distinction drawn there simply does not apply because that did not involve carrying the public at all they did not carry any passengers at any time so to say that the definition of a public carrier versus a private carrier in terms of carrying goods somehow carries over to this statute dealing with caring people if there's a just tremendous impact on child in terms of the ability to expunge the education at some point in time there is a distinction there's a serious distinction between felonies and misdemeanors if a child for example ever wants to