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news
Top Member
Canada
2951 Posts |
 Posted - 05/15/2007 : 05:00:06 AM
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - Palm Beach Post, FL -
STUART — Bus driver Alexander Cook, 61, and aide Kelly Fallon, 40, were charged with child neglect and released from the Martin County Jail on $2,500 bond each.
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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2007 : 09:15:54 AM
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Would appear yet another bus driver and aide have paid the price when driving for the stupid. Crystal clear policies are of no use when the driver is not aware something is happening. I suspect officials left a lot out of their presentation to the press. A lot of good an untrained aide does. Have relatives living in several parts of Florida. None of their kids are allowed on the buses. The drivers violence prevention training is pitiful, many of the schools totally oblivious to helping calm the buses - make all sorts of claims in the press, but do nothing effective to end the craziness on their school buses. Scapegoating the bus driver is Florida school officials' favorite reaction. Sensibility is missing - See nothing in the story concerning the bus driver and aide telling the kids to fight. Can't imagine a police officer cited for neglect over a fight that occurred outside their view. Florida is one of many states I simply would choose not to drive for. Too many great jobs, especially in Florida. They can have their misery to themselves. (jk)
Note: Free brochure for parents - "The seven highly effective steps to keeping your child safe" - Click Here for Link
FREE School Bus Safety Ads & Photo Library
Post Check, Hostage Takeover, Bus Fire and special effects photos now available Free to use at websites, in newsletters, memos, the local press, letters to parents and more. This is a very popular Website. If you can't get in bookmark the page and try again later.
There is no school bus driver shortage!
Properly train, effective support and pay that retains.
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Lords47
Top Member
USA
714 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2007 : 10:30:00 AM
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James - both the driver and the monitor certainly could have done something or even anything. They did absolutely nothing. They didn't try to intervene, control the situation, stop the bus or call for help. I don't care if you have training or not, if a kid is getting the daylights whipped out of them on the bus, common sense is to stop the fight, not ignore it. You're right. Sensibility IS missing: from the driver and aide.
Parents entrust their children's safety on a school bus. This was negligence on behalf on driver and monitor. They have a good amount of liability, along with the students involved in the beating. I don't agree that they should have been fired. The fine is enough to set them straight. But they didn't fulfill their obligations of keeping kids safe and intervening when violence breaks out. Plain and simple. |
- Ryan |
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Cody
Top Member
United States
1630 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2007 : 1:21:35 PM
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| I'm sure if there is so much of a big deal coming out of not stopping the fight, that if they would have stopped the fight they would have made a big deal also. If the kid is determined to beat up the victim I don't think words are going to stop him. And if the driver touches him to intervene.... well it seems parents will just b!@$ch and sue. |
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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2007 : 6:49:07 PM
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From the story: "He said the conflict actually started at school and his daughter thought it was over at the end of the day."
Seems to me a half alert school staff would have caught this since the school is not even negotiating through traffic. For it to then show up on the bus without school staff saying anything to the bus driver is inferiating. The driver must concentrate on traffic when the bus is in motion.
Again, I read nothing about either the bus driver or aide telling the kids to fight.
What the bus driver said in the story, "there was another side to the story, but he didn't want to comment until he could talk with a lawyer."
I believe him and would consider it a good bet that the bus drivers at that facility were given mixed messages on how to deal with fighting, even when they notice the behavior.
Would suspect that school bus was out of control before a fight ever entered the picture - and that reflects direct to training and support. Fighting is on the other end of the behavior spectrum, beyond disrespect and defiance. A fight says lesser issues have been ignored or glossed over.
Some of these lackadaisical school officials would be shamed into oblivion where they ever to discover the harm their mollycoddling kids can cause on the school buses.
Kids want to know that they can trust what the bus driver says. All policy and support must establish that trust. When not, what we read in this thread's story is common place on school buses where bus driver trust has been violated by one or more of the other adults involved and responsible to help that bus driver keep kids safe.
My bus used to be just like some that we read about here. But now, many years without a fight on my bus gives me insight concerning this issue that the untrained would likely miss. Ever so glad I went ahead and paid for collage offered violence prevention training that employers refuse to provide. Even a student defiantly chewing gum on my bus can be escorted to the office to work out whatever the issue while the rest of us go home.
When what we've been reading in stories that is happening on some school buses, make no mistake about it, management and support is the most likely problem, not the bus drivers or the kids or the kids parents.
Those that mollycoddle kids are the same that promotes violence. Don't do it - do not mollycoddle kids - stay strong on the lesser violations, making those as serious as fighting might be now and fighting may never again happen on the bus. (jk)
Note: Free brochure for parents - "The seven highly effective steps to keeping your child safe" - Click Here for Link
FREE School Bus Safety Ads & Photo Library
Post Check, Hostage Takeover, Bus Fire and special effects photos now available Free to use at websites, in newsletters, memos, the local press, letters to parents and more. This is a very popular Website. If you can't get in bookmark the page and try again later.
There is no school bus driver shortage!
Properly train, effective support and pay that retains. |
Edited by - JK on 05/15/2007 7:13:08 PM |
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william
Top Member
USA
1912 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2007 : 9:29:24 PM
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James, how did you conclude that the kids in that district were mollycoddled and the training minimal? A district spokesperson has stated that the procedures for this sort of thing are clear, so where did you get your information?
And tell me how five or six students can be beating the s**t out of another, a child screaming, paper flying all over the bus, and it goes unnoticed unadjusted mirror and high seat backs notwithstanding.
If this story is true, these two people deserves absolutely no trust whatsoever. If this story is true, these two people deserves no respect from anyone on this forum. The excuses these two offered are pathetic, self-serving and downright stupid. This is incompetence at it's worse and tempts me to use the "b" word for these people.
James, as much as I respect your right to say things that borders on the ridiculous, don't you think a statement such as " I see nothing in the story concerning the bus driver and aide telling the kids to fight", really goes over the top? |
William |
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news
Top Member
Canada
2951 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2008 : 6:04:17 PM
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Dad of Anderson Middle School student sues over beating she took on bus in 2007
Stuart News, FL
By Megan V. Winslow
STUART — The father is seeking in excess of $25,000 from the School Board, the School District’s transportation department, the bus driver and the driver’s assistant to pay for his daughter’s medical expenses, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Martin County Circuit Court.
full story
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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2008 : 8:10:43 PM
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Considering the level of service provided in this case would think it wise of the provider to quickly cut a check to settle this event. (jk)
FREE School Bus Safety Ads & Photo Library
Post Check, Hostage Takeover, Bus Fire, Danger Zones and special effects photos now available Free to use at websites, in newsletters, memos, the local press, letters to parents and more. This is a very popular Website. If you can't get in bookmark the page and try again later.
There is no school bus driver shortage!
Properly train, effective support and pay that retains. |
Edited by - JK on 06/13/2008 8:12:16 PM |
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guzaldo
Advanced Member
421 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2008 : 08:22:34 AM
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Wonder why the parents of the kids doing the beating aren't being held responsible.
Sounds like a lot of folks are responsible here but let's not let the kids and their parents off the hook.
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FL -Driver, aide accused of failing to halt attack
