As a parent would this make you mad or would you under stand it????? I am the bus driver

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The letter was not intended for the parents to force the kids to do it, it was to inform them of what had happend, that I had asked the kids to do it and that I had been working with them for weeks. 
I do not force the kids to police others, some of them just want to help so we have a safe ride. It is over with and everyone is safe so I am happy. By the way the sub driver wrote the kids a note back saying thank you and that she is looking forward to driving for them again, She knows they are usually not so roudy and they really loved that. I am sorry but not all in life is fair and sometimes you have to do what you think is best at the time. I really think some of you missed the point of this and I am sorry if I have offended any of you. I guess you would have to be a bus driver to understand that some times you have to try different things. The last 2 times they acted like this for a sub I did punish just the offenders and it did not fix it so I thought I would try something else. 
As a parent anyone has a choice to drive their kids to school if the driver does not handle things to their liking. I have never had a parent chose this so I guess I am not as harsh as you seem to think I am.
Next time I will find a bus driver forum to post this stuff because this is an issue for more drivers than me, mine are mild compared to some.
By the way, as the bus driver I can punish the kids in the way I see fit as long as it is not abusive. A letter and being quiet is not the worst thing I could have done. I could have written a bunch of kids up and got some kicked off the bus then they could not get to school because some parents dont have cars, and that write up stays in their file and goes to the next school with them till they graduate. I chose not to do those because to me that is abuse.

 


Its abuse to write up a child for bad behavior?? Huh??
 
then you miss understood because I want them to feel that someone likes them. Some of them dont get that at home.

 


But your job, your main concern should be to make sure your bus and those kids are SAFE... not to make them feel "liked" by you...

I understand that you care about those kids a lot.. and i respect that. I bet you are such blessing for those kids...
But if you really care, their safety should be first.. period. Always..
You wouldnt want them to come to harm because they arent following your bus rules would you??
 
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Are you a bus driver? My job description at my company does include making them comfortable and secure, if they dont like me some then they will not tell me when they have problems. I am not going to explain myself any longer. I am great at my job and I love it.......How many people do you know can say that?????

But your job is to make sure your bus and those kids are SAFE... not to make them feel "liked" by you...
 
But your job, your main concern should be to make sure your bus and those kids are SAFE... not to make them feel "liked" by you...
I understand that you care about those kids a lot.. and i respect that. I bet you are such blessing for those kids...
But if you really care, their safety should be first.. period. Always..
You wouldnt want them to come to harm because they arent following your bus rules would you??

School bus is different from what I know, but if it were my kid, you can go ahead and make them write a paper - while ensuring they are safe.

Public transit? Get the hell off my bus and call the cops, I gotta go. Seriously.
 
School bus is different from what I know, but if it were my kid, you can go ahead and make them write a paper - while ensuring they are safe.  

Public transit?  Get the hell off my bus and call the cops, I gotta go.  Seriously.


I wasnt talking about the silly paper thing.
 
As a parent I don't see any problem with making the kids write a letter, or sending the letter you composed home to the parents. Teachers punish entire classes for a few kids misbehavior all of the time, why can't a bus driver? I have a feeling that if it was just a few kids then it wouldn't have been a big enough issue for you to feel like you want to punish them all. I think it is great to make them take responsibility for their actions. In my school district the principal has been known to ride the bus with students who have been continually unruly.

Working with kids is getting harder and harder. Less and less parents give half a crap what their kids are up to and who they mouth off to. I have very high expectations from both of my children about their behavior, and they live up to them most of the time. Even when I think my kids are being absolutely horrible out in public I get compliments about how well behaved they are. This just goes to show how many parents let their kids do whatever. Good luck... I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to send the letter out.

My sons bus driver (he's 4) is always doing something for the different holidays and they always have to ask for permission first. Like, we're handing out Halloween/Christmas/Whatever goodies is it ok if we give one to your child. What kind of Grinch would say no? Or, we're going to put up holiday window clings, you won't be offended will you? I remember the days when you could just be nice to a kid when you wanted to.

Personally, I just want to say thanks for what you're doing and thanks for getting those kids home safe every day. I live just about ten miles away from the location of a school bus accident where a child died and others were hospitalized. You have an important job and you wouldn't have been doing it for as long as you have if you didn't care, so again, Thank You.
 
Hey.. that's a heck of a lot softer than anything done when I was young riding the bus. Riding the bus was a HORRIBLE experience... the kids would yell and scream and climb over each other, fight in the aisle, the only thing you could do was try to keep yourself out of the tangles... they were horribly loud, and on top of that, all the district bus drivers seemed to have ONE recourse, and that was to scream their heads off.. give it a few minutes and the kids would pick the volume up again.

So I actually do feel it is quite sensible of you to be trying to appeal to their affections... not because it's so horrible to write them up, but dealing with a huge gaggle of kids takes more strategy than force. My observations, anyway.

One thing a bus driver did in a different school district I was in, who seemed to be a much better driver all in all..... she assigned places. SHE had a quiet bus, and it was really nice for kids like me who didn't appreciate the noise or shenanigins.
The kids get rowdy, why? Because they're finally in their groups with their 'friends' after a day of being managed apart, and just like dangling a sugary cupcake in front of their noses, they don't have the maturity to control themselves... you have to do it for them.

Rowdy kids come up the front. You can tell the rowdy ones 90% of the time (going from my childhood observations) because they head to the back of the bus. They want to be back there for a reason! Then being up the front, they sit next to someone out of their 'clique'... and if you notice them seeming to form a new clique, you switch them to a different partner the next ride.
You only allow the quietest kids to ride in the back, harder to see what they're doing back there.

So when they load on, send them to their places, one at a time... usually the buses sit long enough that doing that shouldn't be hard... and let them know that better behaviour yeilds a better postition, a few rows back at a time. Not with their friends though.
Your really difficult kids, like kinds that get up or jump around, right up the front, you can put them in at the window, and have a larger volunteer (usually the volunteer was cheerful!) in the aisle seat on baby sitting duty. You can make it pretty obvious that babysitting is what it is, too.. the censure of peers makes an impact, at least. Of course the volunteer gets some kind of perk as a reward, and all the well behaved kids get a thank you (or whatever you do) for being good, as they step off the bus.
 
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