The Wheels On The Bus
I am ranting this morning. I read a few comments on another journal and it has gotten my dander up. So you can continue reading or you can stop now. This is a heated topic for me. You have the right to state your opinion but I would suggest before you put forth an opinion it be an educated one. Don't attempt to be an expert on the subject until you have experienced the job first hand and have done the research neccesary to be informed. Please don't fill my comments with negative remarks unless you yourself have been employed as a school bus driver or school bus monitor.
Before Steven and I married, before I moved to Virginia, I worked for the school system in my county back in Georgia. I did substitute teaching and drove a school bus for many years. It is not a job I want to do again. Being a school bus driver is one of the most thankless jobs in the school system. Administrators, office employees and teachers often look down their noses and treat you as if you are an uneducated fool and incapable of getting a better job. For me it was a decision I made so that I could earn a living, have medical insurance coverage for my children and still be home most of the day to raise my children and homeschool Colby.
Parents are the number one reason I do not ever want to drive again. I have an impeccable record and NEVER missed a day of work in 5 school terms. I was the only driver my boss ever wrote a letter of recommendation for. I am not bragging just stating facts. I had such an excellent record that a story was published in the newspaper. Several of the high school clubs raised money or donated money for some of the programs I implemented on my bus. I provided used library books, crayons, coloring books, pockets games, anything and everything I could think of to keep small children entertained.
I drove a great school bus. It was a 2000 Chevy with a Bluebird body. It had a stereo system so children could listen to music as a reward for good behavior. When I left a/c was being installed in every bus. How's that for riding in style?
The route I drove had 53 children ages 4-6 and 18 children ages 7-10. The school district split the routes because high school age students picked on and bullied little kids and it was deemed best to separate them, especially siblings. Many parents baulked at this plan but I promise you disciplinary actions dropped extremely.
Let me tell you a little bit about school buses and their drivers. Drivers spend on average 3-4 hours in a moving vehicle with those school aged children. You get to know children beyond their name, age, school attended and where they live. A driver is often the most seen school system employee. They are the first representative a child sees in the morning and the last when they step off at home. They get the least respect from parents.
Parents need to remember one thing: Riding the school bus is not a right a child deserves. The transportation to and from school is a privilege. Yes, a privilege and it is one that can be taken away. Parents who think they can throw their weight around and intimidate drivers are the reason it is now a federal offense to step onto a school bus and mouth off at a driver or stand at the bus stop and cuss and shout and make meaningless threats to the driver and/or other children.
Many school systems do not back their driver's in adhering to state and federal laws. If an incident occurs it is the driver alone who is responsible for filing police reports. If a car breaks a traffic law involving the school bus it is the driver who has to file the transportation report and the police report. If an altercation occurs at the bus stop, whether the driver witnessed it or not, the driver is responsible for all follow-up in reporting an incident.
During the last year I drove I was stopped at the entrance of a housing project. The bus was stopped with all lights flashing and the stop sign out. A car pulled up in the driveway of the housing project. The driver let her child out, looked at me, looked at the traffic, looked at me again and sped out of the entrance. She hit a child and NEVER stopped. I was held liable for the child. I had to file the reports with the police department without any support from the school system or school board. Do you believe this woman's boyfriend threatened violence the next day because I had to report the incident and her license was suspended? Do you think the school offered me any protection? I was told to file a police report of the threat. That was the length of the schools involvement. This is not uncommon. Conditions are getting better nation wide but most drivers know they are on their own. Do you want that resposibility?
I would like to know what makes parents think their children are angels while riding a bus? What makes a parent think their child sits down and behaves on the school bus when most of those same children do not even behave in the family car? What makes a parent think their child never instigates an altercation? I had a parent file charges against me because she said her child was abused in my care. It wasn't until she saw the tape and witnessed her child leaving his seat, going to the back of the bus and punching a child in the face repeatedly. It was my obligation to restrain that child and call for backup.
This 6 year old boy, fighting like a wildcat looked at a 6'4" 250lbs police officer and told him to "suck his black dick" and that he "could do any motherfuckinggoddamnthing he pleased" because his momma "said so." It wasn't until the mother was forced to watch the tape that she withdrew her complaint. I never recieved an apology from her or the school system. Why did this child do this? He was upset because the other child's father had an affair with his mother and no longer was her 'boyfriend'.
The word of drivers became so disputed and created so many problems most of the schools districts in Georgia had video and audio equipment installed. I promise you one thing, any parent who watches their child behave like a monkey on a timestamped tape quickly learns their child is no angel. I can cite many incidents like the one above.
The route I drove had seen 6 drivers who quit their job. I am the only driver to who managed to get those children under control and had the fewest incidents occur.
Some states contract services from companies to provide transportation. For those I cannot speak. For the drivers in the state of Georgia I can.
In Georgia, a school bus driver is employed by the local school system. Their pay is salaried and comes from two sources: the county and the state. The driver, while an employee of the local school system is also a state employee. They are licensed by the state and are held accountable by the local and state school boards as well as DOT (Department of Trabsportation). The DOT is the same regulatory authority that oversee truck drivers.
To obtain my school bus driver endorsement I had to pass several tests: basic driving skills, airbrake assembly, road safety, school safety and a battery of DOT endorsed tests involving control of the bus, parking, stopping on a dime, backing into a loading dock, and being able to stop within 6 inches of a white line that can only be seen in a mirror, backing through a series of orange cones using only the mirrors and driving through cones set up a distance less than the length of the bus. It was NOT easy. I can drive a bus better than my Explorer. I had to attend classes and meetings throughout the year to learn the state criminal codes and laws pertaining to school buses, drivers, and child safety. We received no pay or compensation for the hours required outside of driving. I have spent many hours researching on my own. I have attended road courses and been to the automotive plants that build a school bus.
A school bus is the safest vehicle on the road. The construction of the seats and the body have proven time and again to prevent injury WHEN YOU TEACH YOUR CHILD TO SIT DOWN AND REMAIN SEATED THE ENTIRE TIME THE BUS IS MOVING TO AND FROM SCHOOL. Seatbelts have proven in test after test to cause more injury than to prevent them.
I am so sick of hearing parents argue for the need of seatbelts. Teaching your child to sit down and behave goes much further in keeping your child safe than a seat belt ever will.
An average school bus capacity is 72. Smaller buses seat less, some buses seat 102. The average everyday school bus seen most often on the road seats 72. The federal government regulations allow for 10% over this number. Meaning a schoolbus that is constructed to seat 72 children can legally carry 79-80 children. This is what you should be raising hell about. Not the seatbelt issue.
Let's do a "what if" situation. What if the school bus carrying your child is involved in accident? What if that accident involves a truck carrying hazardous materials? What if it involves water (a creek, river, lake, etc)? What if it involves a railroad track with an oncoming train? What if, what if, what if ... Yes, all these scenerios and more have occurred at no fault of driver. Not that I am saying all accidents have never been the fault of the driver, some have.
What if your child were on MY school bus and one of the scenerios happened and all 72 children where in seatbelts. How many of those children under the age of 7 could unbelt themselves and exit the bus safely? Lets estimate that half of them could. So we have a total of 72 children on a bus. 53 of them are under age 7. 26 of them can unbelt themselves in case of emergency and exit the bus. What about the other 26 children still belted in? Who is watching those 46 children who have gotten off the bus while the driver is trying to unbelt the other 26? How much time lapses while the driver is unbelting? Do you want your child to be the last one unbelted? What if time is the issue and your child doesn't get unbelted before the bus fills with water or fumes or fire or a train hits it?
School bus drivers are very aware of the fact that once leaving the school he/she is entirely responsible for every single child on that bus. The driver is responsible for every single action by every single child. Teacher have a tough job with under 30 in their classroom for 7 hours a day. Who do you think has a tougher job? A teacher spending 7 hours or less with 30 children or a schoolbus driver spending 3-4 hours a day with 72 children? Who do think makes the least amount of money and the least benefits? Who do you think will suffer the loss of their job first if ANYTHING happens to a child in their care?
Any parent who has a child riding the school bus has the legal right to make arrangements with the school to ride the bus periodically to get a first hand experience of the job the driver does. At any point a parent can request the video tape be pulled and they be allowed to view student behavior. How many parents take the time to do so? How many parents know the driver beyond a wave from the front porch? How many parents take the time to go down to the bus stop and ask the driver if there are any issues? How many parents know beyond a shadow of a doubt that their child remains seated and keeps their hands to themselves at all times?
I had 3 parents who did this. Out of 72 children only 3 parents took the time to ensure their child did their part in their own safety.
Parents need to get involved. (Isn't that a broken record?) Parents need to get to know the school bus driver. (I made it a point of getting to know at least one parent of every child who rode my bus.) Parents need to enforce school bus safety EVERY SINGLE DAY. Parents need to be aware of all laws, federal and state pertaining to school buses and safety. Our school system required the parents of every child on the bus sign a contract making them completely aware of laws and disciplinary actions involved in transportation. How many of those parents actually read it? Not many, I promise you. Most didn't even remember signing it.
Before parents jump on the bandwagon screaming about safety and seatbelts they need to be very serious about teaching their child to behave on the school bus and the importance of remaining seated AT ALL TIMES. Perhaps the only reason most parents scream about seatbelts is they know the only way to keep their kid in a seat is to restrain them with a lap belt.
The stories I could tell of things that have happened on a school bus would send you reeling. Want to hear about the 7 year old who flashed the entired school bus? Want to hear about the little boy who pissed nearly every day at the mailbox and shook his penis at the kids on the bus? Want to hear about the two 4th grade boys who had a penis measuring contest in the back seat crouched down nearly in the floor? Want to hear about clearing up the vomit after a parent sent a child to school who was obviously sick? Want to hear about the child who decided to shit in the floor? Want to hear about 4 year olds who urinated in their pants daily because the parent had not potty trained them by age 4? Want to hear about sexually explicit conversation among 1st graders about their mother's ability to give blowjobs? In every single incident the parent steadfastly refused to believe their child was in any way at fault. Until they watched the tape.
A school bus driver cannot keep your children safe without your support. A school bus driver cannot pay attention to the road and the traffic while trying to contain the behavior of out of control children.
If you think you can do a better job than I ever did or a better job than most school bus drivers on the road, more power to you. Get out there and do it. Until that time how about being a little nicer to the person who gets up at 5am and makes sure your child gets to and from school daily even when it is raining, snowing, and sleeting.
There is not enough money in the world to make me be a school bus driver after reading your experiences. The parents should be forced to ride on the bus and see first hand how their little darlings behave. Half of them should be arrested for whatever the hell is going on in their homes to raise children who speak and think in such a dispicable manner. It is outrageous, disgusting, and overall depressing. This is worse than any reality program on TV.
Holy COW!!! I wish you were my kids bus driver! Your seat belt argument makes so much sense to me now. I often wondered why they don't have belts on a bus...now I know. My bus driver is uneducated and lets way too much of her personal life get involved in her realtionships with the kids. She doesn't know my name, although I've talked to her everyday, twice a day for a year. I have friends who send their kids to private schools for the simple reason of the experiences they have had on a bus as children. Thankfully, my experiences weren't objectionable and my son only has a 5 minute ride to school. I can't believe the kid that woman hit was even considered remotely negligible on your part!!!
I love hearing your rants!! Makes me feel much better ;0) Really..
BTW...simply curious...what do you think about the bus driver who lost it in FL? Tammy..from A Mom and her Blog..has the video if you're interested.
Wow! You're HOT when you're mad! I hear you loud and clear, Angie. As you know, I teach. One of the most frustrating things in the world to deal with is the parents who refuse to teach their children manners -- not even manners, just basic human consideration -- and who refuse to hold their children accountable for their behavior out in public.
I can't tell you the number of times that I have called a parent or sent a note home about some egregious behavior at school, and the parent's response has been to blame anyone else they can think of: other children, the teacher, the principal, anyone except their own child. It's unbelievable.
I truly believe that the most important part of my job is to teach kids the stuff that, sadly, a lot of them just aren't getting at home. Please. Thank you. I'm sorry. Excuse me. May I? Are you ok? Can I help? I also teach them that they need to know how to behave even when there is not a grown-up there to tell them what to do.
That situation in Florida -- it's difficult to know what actually happened when we are all so removed from the situation, so I don't want to make any pronouncements about it. It would not surprise me if the children behaved in such a way that the bus driver totally lost his shit. But it's also possible that the bus driver is a nutcase. Maybe even a little bit of both. Hard to know from the outside.
Anyway, you make a lot of good points about the seatbelt issue. Overall, school buses have excellent safety records. The only thing I ever worried about with my kids on the bus was whether the other kids were behaving themselves.
You were definitely a super bus driver! Man, what a nightmare that must have been.
(Sorry to write such a long comment - but this whole issue about parental responsibility is very close to my heart).
As a parent- I would have been thrilled, proud and very glad to have you in CHARGE of my two childern- There are so many parents who don't want anyone eles to be in charge- then keep their nasty butt's home- my kids have been told since they were little " In our house we do what our grown up tell's to do" then we tell them who that grown will be- in your case we would have told them WHile in Mrs. Angie care- she is in charge!
I do have to say I am very pround of our School district- they are very proud of all their drivers and expect all riding famlies to ride with respect! When there are field trip's the drivers are in charge and the teacher make sure the kids respect them-but we are a small town where everyone know's one and other- our school communities are very family like, but you know, these are lousey California school!( they are so touchy-feely!)
Your old school district was honored to have you and so were those families!
I hadn't ever thought about the UNBELTING part. Good point. Now I won't be so pissed off about that.
I never rode a school bus as a child (walked or took public transportation) so I have no experience from the kid point of view, but I do know that we are training Muffin Man to stay in his seat, be polite, and not distract the driver when he's in ANY moving vehicle. Also, no hitting.
Angie, this should be required reading for every parent, every child and every school employee; talked about at every PTA, sent home with students (even those who do not ride the bus). Everyone who drives a bus should be like you; undortunately, they are not. We have had numerous complaints here in NC about drivers who have sleeping children on the bus and do not wake them for their scheduled stop, among other things.
Rock on, Angie! As a kid I experienced the worse bullying of my life on the school bus every day. It was a nightmare. The kids on my bus set off firecrackers, had KNIFE FIGHTS, beat the shit out of each other (and me, once) and I'm sure you can imagine what all else. Our driver was this tiny woman and the kids didn't respect her at all, they just yelled at her and called her names. She was physically smaller than most of the boys (middle school aged) and her only recourse was to turn the bus around and drive back to the school, where the principal had to call all of our parents to come pick us up. I don't even want to think about the shit she had to deal with from the parents -- the kids were bad enough! I hope that poor woman was able to retire someplace nice and warm with no bratty kids!
You couldn't pay me enough money to drive a school bus. Or teach either, for that matter. My kids don't ride the bus but I'm constantly asking their teachers about their classroom behavior and so far, so good.
Angie:
I am well aware that my post is what set you off. I am sorry if in anyway I have upset you. That was not my intention.
I would have loved for you to have been my bus driver. But sadly that was not the case. Some of my worst school experiences were on the bus with mean and nasty bus drivers that could have cared less about the children on the bus and their safety. In all the years I rode the bus I had one bus driver, Mrs. C that knew my name and remembered my moms name. (as she walked me to the bus forever and always talked to my drivers even the nasty ones, which most of them were.) It is truly sad that children are so misbehaved and parents are in so much deniale. I would have never thought to get out of my seat or misbehave on the bus simply due to the fact that the discipline would have been far worse at home than any school system could dish out, my parents taught us right from wrong and always instructed us to respect adults. I have witnessed alot when it came to terrible siutuations on the bus. We did not receive cameras on the bus until I was in high school.
My brother and I rode the bus in middle school and I know after witnessing my brother who had special needs being severly picked on and beat up and bus drivers not doing anything about it. There was nothing we could do when the bus driver refused to step in and solve the problem. My brother and I even ended up sitting in the seat behind her and him still being picked on and tortured and her not doing a damn thing. (My mom fought the school system forever and in turn after nothing being done, drove us to school from there on out), yes it is a privalage and we should have been entilted to ride it because we were well behaved and due to the fact of the school district and bus driver not being able to protect the safety of my brother my mom removed us from the bus and drove us to and from achool everyday.
I understand your point of view on the seatbelts and can understand where they come from. I still feel that the school bus is not the safest of transportation and that there are parents out there who do not teach their children how to behave (due to that fact the safety is just not there) Another factor of the bus being unsafe is bus drivers that are mean and block out bad behavior and plain old just dont care.
I only wish every bus driver was as great at there job as you were and had taken their job seriously. I would have been proud to ride your bus.
Kate
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
The yellow school bus is, statistically, the safest form of ground transportation in the United States, providing a safe ride to 25 million children at least twice a day, every school day, for a total of over 10 billion rides annually.
When comparing transporting children to and from school in a passenger vehicle or in a school bus, statistics show that over the past five years it is approximately EIGHTY-SEVEN TIMES SAFER to place a child in a school bus.
The greatest threat to the safety of our children during school hours is not in the school building, but on the way to and from the school building.
The vast majority of "incapacitating injuries" suffered by our children going to and from school could be eliminated by placing students in yellow school buses.
The deaths incurred transporting our children to and from school, regardless of the type of vehicle, are PREVENTABLE with an acknowledgement of the data and respect for safety education.
Congress and federal and state governments have done their part by choosing to make school buses the most regulated, most inspected, and safest motor vehicles on the road.
600 children are killed every year and many more are injured getting to and from school in some other vehicle than a school bus. (I can personally recall 6 deaths in one year in highway accidents in which those teenagers would still be alive had they been on a school bus and not in a car driven by another teenager.)
There is no safer way to transport a child than in a school bus. Fatal crashes involving occupants are extremely rare events, even though school buses serve daily in every community - a remarkable 8.8 billion student trips annually. Every school day, some 440,000 yellow school buses transport more than 24 million children to and from schools and school-related activities. Said another way to give perspective to the huge magnitude of pupil transportation, the equivalent of the populations of Florida, Massachusetts and Oregon ride on a school bus twice every day - almost always without a serious incident.
A school bus is the safest vehicle on the road.
I am sorry you had such a bad experience on the school bus, Kate. The example of what happened to your brother is why there are mandates for special school buses for children with special needs. Those school buses are not privileges, they are requirments. Mainstreaming special needs students onto regular school buses is nothing more then a pencil pusher in the system trying to cut the budget. School systems will make every attempt to not have to provide special needs for special children by blurring the statistics of the need in their school system. That is a money issue. It needs to be addressed.
I never drove a special needs school bus. The driver and the monitor are required to have special medical training and those buses are equiped with built in car seats with shoulder and lap harnesses, belts for locking a wheel chair in place. I found that I did not have a talent for driving those buses and being responsisble for children with mild to severe learning disabilities, seizure disorders, violent physical behavior, sexual misfunctions, and various degrees of physical handicaps. Nothing can be done to discipline those children. NOTHING. It is the equivelant to working in a state hospital.
Do you realize that there are federal laws that say if a school system cannot provide for a child's special need the school has to pay for the transportation of the child to and from a school that can? There are a few cases where a parent has used the system in such a way that their children have been flown to other states to special school and brought home DAILY at the expense of the school board?
Education on school bus policies and federal laws regulating school buses, students and drivers on those buses needs to be promoted. People need to get involved. School systems will look for ways to not have to provide for those special needs. Why? So many people have learned to use the system to gain special transportation for their child to the extent they have abused it. If those parents were truly concerned for their child wouldn't they want to live in the area of that special school instead of putting their child through the stress of hours in flight daily plus a full school day?
These issues as well as the behavior of drivers and students need to be addressed but none of those issues fall under national school bus safety regulations. While they are pieces of the same pie they are not regulated by the same governing authorities.
School bus drivers require far more training than they are given. Drivers do not make much money at all. Many only work because of the state insurance benefits. Most school bus drivers, working every school day, make less than $13,000.00 per year. there is no incentive for people qualified to actually do those jobs.
I am an advocate for children being transported to school by bus. We live 2 1/2 miles from school. My child rides the school bus every single day. No exceptions.
I know a few drivers who should not be driving. They could care less about the the children on their school bus. The same can be said that there are teachers who do not need to be teaching. The same as nurses who should not be nursing and doctors who should not be practicing medicine.
Each and every issue is valid. School buses are regulated by DOT. Drivers are regulated by DOT and the school system they are employed by. Students are regulated by the local, state and federal board policies. You cannot lump them all into one group and declare a school bus is unsafe.
The last year I drove our county alone had 128 buses on the road every single school day. That is 256 trips back and forth. The average total number of children on the school buses was 8,000 per day. Not one child was injured being transported to and from school. That same year 6 teenagers in our county were killed in car wrecks while travel to or from school with another teenager driving. Based on that one little county in one state there is no way anyone could ever deem a school bus unsafe.
I trust my child is in safer hands on a school bus than in any car. Even my own car. School buses are built to sustain a lot of damage without injury to passengers. The same cannot be said of cars, trucks or vans.
Nothing I can say will change the viewpoint of those against school buses and those who think seat belts and other things should be on a school bus. I will tell you this, if seat belts had been installed on the bus I drove I would have quit that very day. If school systems backed a driver the way they do teachers, paid a fair wage based on the job done, if parents educated themselves on all the issues of schools, buses and the discipline of their children I would be driving a school bus right now.
When the school system here found out I was a former driver I was offered a job on the spot. There are not enough qualified people to do the job. School systems are always looking for good drivers. I turned them down. the liability insurance is taken out as a 'tax' from your pay. Does the same happen to any other employee of a school system?
The only way to change things for the better is to start on the local level, leave politics and personal bias aside and work together to put in place a system that works.
I cannot judge the actions of drivers who have been at fault for the loss of life and injury of children. I can tell you that there are days I could have easily snapped and went insane. Seriously. there are many times I wanted to park that big yellow bus and just get off and walk away. There are children and parents and teachers and school officials that make it almost impossible to do the job. I have even heard the 'unspoken' policy that a driver is to do nothing but sit in the seat and drive. They have no authority or control over what happens on the bus. Some people are the position that that is exactly what they do to keep their job: sit in the seat, shut their mouth and drive.
I am rambling. Maybe tomorrow I will tell you about all the good stuff that happens on a school bus.
Judy, there was rarely a day that went by that a child was not sleeping when I got to their home. Several times I had to wake the child and help them off the bus and to their house or honk the horn until someone came out and got the child.
Children sleeping and being left on a bus is why buzzers are being installed on many buses. When the ignition is turned off a buzzer begins to blare at an ear shattering pitch. The driver has to walk to the back and press the mechanism that turns it off. This is the procedure to MAKE drivers walk the length of their bus and check for children.
Several times children would get off the bus at home and instead of actually going into their house they would go to a neighbors. I would get calls having to verify if a child actually road the bus, if the child got off at their stop etc. It would be a nightmare.
Many times no one would be home when a young child arrived on the school bus. I would have to drive my route, double back and wait on the side of the road. This became such a problem with negligent parents we were then required to take the child to the sheriff's office who would bring in child services.
It is a sad thing to see parents use the school system for nothing more than a babysitting service.
Badger, it was the same when I road the bus. Things have come a long way since those days. Back then a driver could stop the bus and put the kid making trouble off on the side of the road. These days that is a law suit waiting to happen.
Kate,
In the school system I worked for children had to be evaluated as to the NEED of the special buses. The process could take as long as 3 - 6 weeks. For a time I had a child with autism who was a regular afternoon rider. He refused eye contact, rarely spoke, but would smile when I talked to him. A few time he would get in the floor and play with small toys huddled against the side of the bus. He never once caused me any trouble. When he was placed on the special needs bus with severely handicapped kids he would freak out from the behavior of other children.
I asked several time if he could be put back on my bus and was told "No." He was a special needs child and the state mandated he HAD to ride the special bus.
At the same time there was a child who had a seizure disorder. It was under control with meds but his mother had failed to fill his prescription for a few months and he began to have regular seizures. I was responsible for him and he was denied the special buses with drivers capable of taking care of him. I was instructed to do nothing when he had seizures. Have you seen a seizure? It would scare the shit out of me. It was a race every day to get him home before something happened!
Go figure the genuis that decided that one.
Angie, it sounds like you were a great bus driver! What a great idea, finding games and books to keep the kids occupied. I bet that alone went a long way toward keeping peace. I'll be much more aware of what my kids bus drivers' deal with after reading your post.
On another note, I wanted to mention that I tried your bread recipe (sour cream, butter, flour) this week--it was a big winner with the kids! I think I probably kneaded it a bit too much, but it's hard to resist. I'll do even better next time.
Another Angie "hidden talent"!!
This is a fine piece, Angie, much appreciated. I never thought of the seat belt issue from the angle you presented, so now I am switched from pro to anti. You're a good influence.
Nowadays, you get to deal with brush, which doesn't talk back. You so lucky...
I knew it was bad but I was unaware as to just HOW bad. The School Committee in our town just tried to whittle the bus routes from three seperate to one. All grades, from K-12 riding together. They included testimonials of just how well this worked in other towns on the info they sent home - partly I feel, because they knew it was a crummy, but moneysaving idea. The bids failed to give them the savings they were hoping for and the idea was canned.
The responsibility you had as a bus driver was frightening. My son's bus driver is strict and loud and very friendly. We love her. He's been taught continuously how hard her job must be with 50 or so kids on the bus, especially loud, misbehaving kids. Not to mention that she drives in the snow, sliding past our bus stop on more than one occasion. So far, so good with his behavior.
Nice rant, btw.
I appreciate your point of view here Angie. I've always wondered why there were no seatblets on buses. Your explanation makes a lot of sense. Thanks:-)
My only comment is as a mother that I don't believe that it is a privilege to ride the bus. I pay school taxes and a bus drivers salary, my children are entitled to ride the bus as long as they behave. If being a bus driver is such a hard and thankless job than I suggest that bus drivers think long and hard about their positions. My husband is a bus driver and he takes his job very seriously. Yes kids can be difficult and so can parents but driving a school bus you should be well aware of that before signing on for that responsibilty.
As a mother, I think attending school AND riding a bus is a privilege no matter how much you pay in taxes.
There are all kinds of paid privileges that can be taken away if you don't behave responsibly, ask someone who loses their license after drinking and driving. It a privilege to own a house, but stop paying your bills or let become run-down and uninhabitable and that's gone too.
There are too many bratty kids in society today because they think they are above privileges being taken away, no matter how rotten they are. Until the PARENTS have to stay home with their suspended kid or drive the brat to school every day because they are banned from the bus, nothing will change.
And there is not enough money in the world to make me drive a bus. Trying to control that many kids and keep from crashing? I'd be like the driver on South Park.
Rock on, Angie. Is there nothing you can't do?!