Caleb came home from school and said, “Mom, I really need to talk to you. It’s not about school, it’s about the bus.”He’d had a complaint about the bus nearly every day since school started. It was so overcrowded on the first day that they had to take 30 students off and call for a back up bus. Caleb had lamented that the 8th graders were rowdy, causing trouble and not listening to the bus driver. He was always quick to mention that he was behaving himself but that the older kids were being “ridiculous.”
I was never much concerned with others’ ridiculous behavior as long as none of them were bothering Caleb. When he insisted that the other students were leaving him alone and that his own behavior was appropriate, I decided not to worry too much about the behavior around him. Caleb had often mentioned the bus driver’s grumpiness but I reasoned that I might also be irritable if my job involved that many adolescents in an unstructured setting. I certainly didn’t envy the bus driver’s job but never did I suspect that she was actually part of the problem.
On this particular day last week, Caleb’s story started like most of the others I’d heard. They were half way home when kids started misbehaving. The troublemakers were opening windows and the bus driver was grumpy. Then, Caleb explained, just as he was stepping off the bus, the door closed in on him, hitting him squarely on each hip. I suppressed a chuckle as I imagined him stuck between the accordion doors.
“Oh my goodness! Are you O.K.? Did it hurt? Did the other kids laugh at you?”
Though shocked, Caleb seemed fine but all of the sudden it occurred to me: a bus door is manually controlled by the bus driver. The door closing on Caleb could not have been some sort of mechanical malfunction, it had to be a deliberate act of the driver herself.
I was trying to find a way to give the bus driver the benefit of the doubt when there came a knock at my door. It was my next-door neighbor. Her two middle school-aged daughters ride Caleb’s bus and she wanted to know if he’d been complaining about the bus driver. She went on to tell me that her 8th grade daughter had also had the door closed in on her.
Evidently, the driver was upset that windows that had been opened and had not been closed, so she expressed her frustration by trapping kids with the door. Neither my neighbor’s daughter nor Caleb had opened a window but were simply innocent victims of the bully of bus 129.
Who would’ve thought it would be the bus driver that would turn out to be the bully? My neighbor encouraged me to make a complaint to the department of transportation, which I did immediately.
And the bus ride has been pleasant ever since.
11 comments:
Way to go! I'm glad you called. No excuse for the driver taking on the behavior of an 8th grader. Shame on her.
Shame on her, indeed! Especially when she doesn't even have her facts straight. Wow! I'm glad you complained and that things have gotten better.
Seriously shame on her! I have such mixed feelings about sending my precious cargo on a school bus. Not ever having to ride one myself, I admit that I think it's kind of lowly. If only it didn't save me so much time and money!!
Luckily, Seth and Sam haven't reported any of the problems like Caleb has, but they do usually say their driver is grumpy. I hope Caleb's experience continues to be bully-free for the rest of the year.
Let me at her! No one does that to mini me and gets away with it! Good job for reporting it!
Seriously!? What a bully indeed. she is probably some traumatized kid taking out revenge in her older years. I don't envy her job at all!
Shocking that an adult in charge of a vehicle with children in it exhibits such behavior! There should totally be some sort of school bus simulation test to see how drivers would handle situations. Can't imagine anyone freaking out on a simulation but still there should be some sort of recourse.
I cannot believe a bus driver would act that way! Glad you took action. I would have had her fired if I was the bus superitendent. Why does an adult need to act that way towards children?
Oh, I'm so sorry! What an awful experience. I've had to call the bus department about our driver a couple of times, too. (After verifying that what my boys were telling me was true.) My boys get upset that they get punished for the behavior of other kids--like holding the kids in the bus for over 1/2 hour at the side of the road. I say kick the trouble-makers off the bus!
FYI--they have cameras on the bus that the administrators can review if there are continuing problems on the bus. But I guess the cameras probably don't cover the doors! Good luck!
Tammy
That is horrible! I'm glad you called too, she's lucky she didn't lose her job. I can't believe she'd do something like that. I totally understand that her job MUST be frustrating, but honestly, adults should know how to cope with their feelings a little better than that?? What message is that sending to these teenagers? That is uncalled for!
What an awful bus driver. Kids have enough to worry about w/o having to worry about a crazy bus driver. I'm glad you called transportaion.
What a terrible bus driver. This story just convinced me that I'll be driving Catie every morning next year! Kudos to Caleb for handling all of this so well.
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