Sounds like one of "our" SD's

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
Well, that 15 year old girl could have been my difficult child. "Don't touch me" flailing her arms up in the air business, very overly dramatic, in my opinion...uh uh. Not okay. I was annoyed immediately with her behavior.

But the bus driver seemed to want to make her point at all costs, then she lost it and that's not okay either.

And then the driver's daughter getting in on the act? Whoa, she really yanked on that other girl's hair!! Ouch. Also not okay.

I think the girl should be suspended and get some community service and the driver should be let go. The driver's daughter should also get some community service with her suspension. Obviously the girl was out of line, and the bus driver should not be in a position that she can't handle.

That's my 2¢
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
Oh yeah, the girl shouldn't have done the stuff she did but I feel the bus driver started the physical aspect of it. After the girl started to leave the bus, the driver pushed her back into her seat and it escalated from there. Bad behavior and decisions all around, especially from an adult.
 
Well I think the bus driver was put in a position...what else could she do? What if she let the kid off the bus and then she were hit by a car? The driver pulled over, stopping traffic. It was up to her to keep the kids on the bus for their own safety. And she pulled over int he first place because the kid would not sit down.


If the driver is reprimanded, I would be disappointed.
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
BBK,

I agree with you completely. I wouldn't be a school bus driver for all the money in the world.

If the kid had just sat down and shut up, the whole thing wouldn't have happened.

She was a difficult child if there ever was one.

~Kathy
 

susiestar

Roll With It
This is EXACTLY why I think there should be a second adult on EVERY bus. I have even volunteered to try to get a grant to pay for "Supervisors" to ride the bus with the driver and children. This would help make sure the children behave, and that the whole bus, along with everyone else on the road, is safe.

It is a sad thing. The driver lost her cool. If she were a parent of the girl, someone would likely have called CPS. But this is a woman incharge of roughly 40 kids for a few hours everyday. She has to monitor behavior AND drive. NOT an easy job.

We jsut need to do more to help protect our children AND the bus drivers.

Susie
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Susie,

I couldn't agree with you more. The bus driver should only have to concentrate on safe driving. There should be another adult on the bus to deal with behavior. Of course, that would mean higher taxes for additional salaries and we all know that is not going to happen.

Recently, my husband and I went out with two other couples that we have been friends with for years. The two women in the other couples are schoolteachers like me and their husbands were former teachers.

We were discussing how education has changed over the course of our careers and my husband told us a story about his uncle who had been a school bus driver many years ago. His uncle said that he never had any discipline problems on the bus because if a child ever did act up, instead of going back to the school and writing a referral, he simply drove to the house, knocked on the door, and told the parent(s) what the child was doing. The parent would discipline the child and it wouldn't happen again.

As he told the story, the teachers at the table just started shaking our heads. We said that would never work now. The driver would be liable for leaving the bus if any of the other children got hurt while he was at the front door talking to the parents and, in all probability, there wouldn't be a parent at home anyway. In addition, if he got lucky enough to find a parent at home, the parent would blame the bus driver and ask for five signed affidavits to "prove" that their little darling could ever do something wrong.

Sadly, all of us agreed that we wouldn't want our children to be educators in today's climate.

~Kathy
 
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