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ILoveBlueBirdTC2000
Active Member
USA
30 Posts |
 Posted - 04/09/2011 : 5:47:47 PM
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A few days ago i was driving my bus when a boy in the back started to bully the other children. When his stop came up, and he came walking down to the front from the back, i didn't open the door and i told him I'll give him a ticket because he was bullying other children.
He rolled his eyes at me and I opened the door to let him out. That night i wrote him a ticket.
The next afternoon when he got on my bus, i handed him the ticket and he started to cuss me out telling me some nasty words, even some words i haven't heard before.
I told him that there would be a meeting with his principal in a few days, and he sneered and flipped me off. 
That afternoon, he started to yell about me in the back of the bus and he pointed at me and cussed and threw things.
I have a rule on my bus where you CANNOT eat. If i catch any of them eating, i put their names down and i give them a ticket right off the bat.
Anyway, he started to eat some sort of candy and threw the wrapper out the window.
I saw every little move he did, and when he threw that wrapper out the window, i decided i had enough.
I pulled the bus over and i told him to get his butt up front behind me.
He got up and stomped to the front and threw his backpack down on the floor.
I was ticked off and i told him there will be another ticket awaiting him in the morning.
He spat on my floor and i told him to knock it off, or there will be three tickets and he will be kicked off for a year.
I am about sick of this crap i have to take from kids, i mean, i love my job, and i try to be nice to the children, but it seems like they dont care...
Has this ever happened on your bus??  |
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BBInt.10
Top Member
USA
1042 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2011 : 6:33:18 PM
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| Not to that extent, that sounds pretty bad. But I do have some kids on my elementary run (K-5) that make my job a lot more difficult than it needs to be. What I've been doing lately with the kids that can't stay seated and keep causing trouble with others, is I move them up to one of the front two seats and make them wear the seat belt. That keeps them sitting right at least. I've written some of these kids up a hand full of times. I've tried giving them assigned seats but they'll just cause problems with whoever they're around. It's like I've got to keep the seat in front of them, beside them, and behind them clear in order for them to not cause problems. They'll get disciplined by the principal at school, and then before long they're back to the same old. It's the same kids over and over again causing the problems. I think that a lot of the problems stem from poor family environments. Good luck with the issues on your bus. I've been thinking a lot lately about going back to public transit driving. I didn't need to deal with passenger discipline doing that job... if a passenger was giving me problems, I'd stop the bus, open the door, and off they went. I miss those days! |
If all your problems are behind you... you must be a school bus driver. |
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overbyja
Senior Member
USA
123 Posts |
Posted - 04/09/2011 : 8:49:56 PM
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Wow, I can relate to what you're going through. In my district, the disciplinary process is quite lengthy. You have to write the person up, then my supervisor has to pull the hard drive from the camera system, she watches it, sends a clip over to the school, and then the assistant principle decides what action needs to be taken. In my case, I believe the school administration goes too easy on the kids. It takes quite a few occasions for someone to get kicked off the bus where I drive. Most of the time, if you kick them off, they won't even go to school cuz their parents don't have the gas money to get them there. One day, I get a phone call from my supervisor and she is just livid, she goes, "Jake, you need to come in and watch this video. Those kids on your bus are just terrible and you HAVE to do something." What I saw happening by just looking up into my mirror was nothing compared to what I saw on that video. Those kids are smart man, they know when it's impossible for the driver to watch them due to traffic or whatever and will take advantage of that. There were kids not properly seated, jumping seats when the bus is moving, wrestling with each other, eating, drinking, you name it. All things I never saw happen from my seat. I came down hard on them after that. Heres a little advice.
When they get on after school, when problems are more likely to happen, seat the kids three to a seat from front to back. Actually stand in the aisle and direct each kid into the seat. That way they sit with someone different every day, and you find out what arrangements work best. Also, if they're all crammed three in a seat, they have less room to move around therefore keeping them more constrained. Set the expectations before you even pull out from school, it will set the tone for the rest of the ride.
You also have to be very firm and consistant in your discipline, but don't lose your cool. You are not their friend. Eventually they will learn what punishments fit what crime. You also have to be fair, don't write someone up for something one day, and let it slide for a different person the next. Kids can be very disrespectful, you have to have thick skin and don't let them push you around. What I do is if they try talking back, don't even let them get one word in. They'll shut right up.
If you catch them eating, don't just tell them to get rid of it, they won't. I will pull my bus over, walk back there, take whatever it is and put it right in the garbage.
Another one I like to use is when they get loud and roudy, I just pull over, shut the bus off, and kick my feet up on the dash. Then my high schoolers will get mad they're gonna be late getting home, come sit with the little ones and make sure they behave so we can continue on.
These are just ideas that usually work for me. Try looking up some posts from JK, the man could write a pretty thick book on bullying and discipline and he knows his stuff  . He'll probably chime in here as well.
Are my kids perfect? Nope. Far from it. But it's a lot better than when I started. |
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Edited by - overbyja on 04/09/2011 9:03:38 PM |
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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
Posted - 04/10/2011 : 09:52:15 AM
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Thank you overbyja, for the compliment.
This forum is loaded with dealing with misbehavior from others and myself. Search: misbehavior, malbehavior, discipline, punishment, fighting, for plenty of threads covering this issue. There are also a few links below that covers the worst behaved.
Cultivating trust, encouraging the well behaved to have the run, and confronting the hostile are difficult adventures. Without effective school and management support the effort can turn out fruitless. Can be better to simply find an employer that provides the necessary support that helps you keep kids safe.
Until your effort becomes encouraging the well behaved to have the run, effectively defending safety in your workplace, and applying remedies that work for the worst behaved, then the hostile and otherwise defiant children will have the run. It can get worse before it gets' better when a bus driver accepts the captainship of his or her bus.
At some point the primary function to stop unruliness, bullying and other malbehavior becomes containment, The hostile environment is not remedied by conflict resolution or mediation. The malbehavior needs to stop now and removing the hostile child from the environment he or she is disrupting achieves that result. Closer adult supervision options may also stop some kids from acting out while that supervision is present.
So many decent school bus drivers ignore misbehavior to the point of neglecting children. They really have no choice if they want to keep their job. When the bus escalates the dysfunctional school and management look for a scapegoat, and that scapegoat is too often the school bus driver.
That said, I presume that your bus is a mainstream school bus, and also that riders are not allowed to transport jars of gasoline, fire crackers and other hazards. A worst behaved child that refuses to follow directions is also a hazard that technically the bus driver must not transport. They present risk to others and self, can be explosive, distract the bus driver and can cause a hostile environment for children, and also an unsafe workplace for the bus driver. These create a 'dangerous condition' on the school bus.
Are these steps in place? Child persists in misbehavior:
Step 1 – Providing the child a warning; Step 2 when needed – Move the child to another seat; Step 3 - Driver calls parent; Step 4 – 1st citation, parent managed when possible; Step 5 – 2nd citation, bus driver managed within policy; Next step – 3rd citation, management/administration managed.
Obviously a child with a gun involved for example would accelerate the steps involved.
Each step must include a significantly different and increasing intervention from the previous step. Anomalies might include a child’s gross defiance that persists in interfering with the driver’s duties, or interferes with the operation of the bus, or presents some sort of risk behavior the driver perceives may escalate in route. Such serious misconduct may then include immediate removal from the bus that day and even before leaving the school. This would not necessarily be a disciplinary action, may be a protective action and/or bus timeliness action, and so is kept separate from the steps above.
On the bus at the school I can load a bus to capacity within about three or four minutes or so, including out of my seat and seating most every child. This activity also includes some sort of brief dialog with every child -- "Glad to see you," or similar.
Three minutes and I’ve provided some dialog to every child riding. Three minutes and it's done.
One obnoxious or otherwise defiant child can consume in addition well beyond the time it can take to fill a school bus with students promptly following directions. The FastTack methods I use every day accomplish two important events:
___Encourages the well behaved to have the run of the bus.
___Brings the worst behaved out in to the open where they can be dealt with.
Here are some brief tips when loading. Load the generally worst behaved bus stops first keeping these to the front half of the bus; While loading arrange students away from each other that create issues, place difficult smaller children by the window with calmer older children in the same seat; Place as many as three to a seat and close off as much of the back area as possible; When too many for the front area place some of the better behaved toward the back; Refuse to transport any child refusing to promptly follow directions -- provide the option of a staff escort off the bus to a seat in the office or the personal space a sidewalk can provide when walking; When children are loud yell out, "No student is to be yelling on this bus! Only the bus driver and school staff have this option on this bus!"; Just before or as departing make this announcement over the PA:
Clear the aisle and sit forward in your seat;
Use soft voices and keep conversations within your immediate area;
Respectful toward fellows, your bus driver, and self;
Nothing in the mouth on this bus.
Any violation in route repeat on the bus PA loudly whatever fits above -- "Soft Voices and discussions kept in your immediate area!! Who persists in not following this direction?!"
When an escalation persists pull over and resolve it. The link below provides the FastTrack method. Stay on task and do not relent.
The well behave having the run means the bullies do not have the run, and that sort of calmer environment is not tolerable to most bullies and the otherwise hostile sorts. The hostile are too often better at taking away power from the well behaved than are many of the well behaved at keeping their power to have the run. How can an intelligent child with a fearful event happening in his or her life trust a bus driver that can not even successfully defend his or her own workplace behind the wheel?
I had to learn how to do these things unilaterally and on my own and involving years of outside study and expert guidance until these most recent years, because too many of the schools did not know how to help their bus drivers keep kids safe, even considered this issue an exclusive responsibility of the bus driver -- not their problem once the kids are on the buses. All this while citations were under the exclusive management of the schools.
The hostile will always be with us, some seem to enjoy creating turmoil within the school system, sometimes even seem on a quest to harm civility within our schools. The one's that prevail against the odds and the unruly mobs are those that have cultivated, encouraged, paved paths and open doors that stay open for the well behaved to have the run.
Regardless of all the advice, tips, tricks and remedies the bus driver can apply some of the worst behaved will continue to act out. The bus driver must stay on task.
Well over a decade later our state's most recent driver training is finally catching up with training that actually helps the bus driver keep kids safe.
Do you have 15-years or so for that to happen in your state or in your workplace behind the wheel of a school bus? The other option is to start looking for an employer that is ready to back up your safety efforts with effective actions that actually work to help you keep kids safe. (jk)
Stopping Violence on School Buses: Not an Easy Task but One that Can be Accomplished - Click here for source.
Stop Violence on the school buses!
Stop bullying and other violence - Complete with excellent video! According to the American Public Health Association, the school bus is the second most common place for bullying to occur (the first is on the playground). This Fast Track slide presentation can help stop bullying on the school buses. Includes class handouts. Free to use in self-study, for class training, and for presentation to the school board. Click Here for Link (See Post # 14)
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Edited by - JK on 04/10/2011 09:58:21 AM |
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matts4290
Advanced Member
224 Posts |
Posted - 04/10/2011 : 1:46:56 PM
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We didn't have any real formal training for student behavior. Just suggestions and help from other veteran drivers. What I learned, and my favorite thing to do is to pull over and stop the bus. Don't say a word and just stare in the mirror. It doesn't take long and the kids realize that the bus has stopped and they'll quiet down, and get out of the aisle. They want to get home fast, and they don't like to be the ones who hold everyone up.
I have seen that our particular school rarely throws anyone off the bus, and in fact us drivers joke that they do not throw kids off the bus. Maybe if the administrators spent some time on the bus, they might think differently.
I agree its important to keep kids up front, but that three to a seat just begs the kids to push out into the aisle.
I'm open to any feedback. I learned a lot one day when the driver whom I was subbing for rode with me one day (he was off for medical reasons). He taught me a lot. It also reaffirmed my position as a driver knowing how much his kids were happy to see him back, and how happy he was to ride along. He asked if he could ride along with me and I was hoping he would to help control the kids, but after he told me that it was a real treat to see his kids again, it brought warmth to my heart. |
We can't all be conventional!
http://www.youtube.com/user/matts4290 |
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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
Posted - 04/10/2011 : 11:19:16 PM
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"... I agree its important to keep kids up front, but that three to a seat just begs the kids to push out into the aisle."
Yep, certainly the case with the worst behaved. Kids claim claustrophobia and act out all sorts of other games. Surprising how offering to rearrange up in the front area by a window position and where the windshield can provide a feeling of open space, which can help ease actual claustrophobia.
Another similar option is to simply offer to rearrange the seating so that 3 big kids are not in one seat, or perhaps move the aisle child to a window seat and reserve the aisle position for the best behaved that can miraculously stay out of the aisle.
Correct placement can often fill 3 to a seat, and offering to rearrange sure helps with compliance. But there are occasions where it's not working and no blame involved -- the bus is not over capacity but is overcrowded.
When the bus is that packed I'll transport at slower speeds to the first stop, often nearby, then move students forced part way in to the aisle to available seats within compliance.
I prefer a packed bus over that of one half full. Contrary to some reports a packed bus gives little room for the common mischief kids pull, and much better reporting when some pull something on the bus. One or two kids in a seat might not report the other's mischief, but when three in a seat one of those three is more likely to tell. (jk)
Stop Violence on the school buses!
Stop bullying and other violence - Complete with excellent video! According to the American Public Health Association, the school bus is the second most common place for bullying to occur (the first is on the playground). This Fast Track slide presentation can help stop bullying on the school buses. Includes class handouts. Free to use in self-study, for class training, and for presentation to the school board. Click Here for Link (See Post # 14)
Stopping Violence on School Buses: Not an Easy Task but One that Can be Accomplished - Click here for source.
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Former School Bus M8
Senior Member
143 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2011 : 9:19:33 PM
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I rarely have disciplinary problems on my bus. The students on all three tiers and schools know what I tolerate and what I don't. Basically as long as they're seated, safe, not using tobacco, drugs or alchohol, not bullying or endangering the safety of others and being respectful, I am happy.
I'll tell you one thing if I was in your position (especially after being cussed out) I would've stopped that bus on a dime, turn it around without giving it a second thought and be back to the school having him removed so fast(not speeding fast)that the kid wouldnt of known what hit him. And if he was too disruptive and unsafe on the ride back to the school, I would pull the bus over and have the police take him off. If the school administrator would not do his job and correct the situation, I'd do the same thing the following day and so on until the either the kid cleaned up his act or the administrator decided to do his job and pull the kid off the bus. The theme of my argument to all the other childrens parents, the parents of the misbehaving child, administrators, boss and anyone else who was concerned is "my concern is the safety of the children on the bus"!
Luckily I get support where i am now but once upon a time I worked for a district that didn't. Unfortunatley for that district and in particular a school in that district, someone was dropping dimes to the local paper and the local paper ate it up. Kind of forced the lazy administrator to do what he hates and that is his job. Again that was a forme district, not the awesome district I work for now. |
School Bus M8 |
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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2011 : 10:30:09 AM
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School districts and bus drivers that remain indifferent toward children's safety on the school buses (usually larger districts that ironically may display industry safety awards) and regardless of their slogans can expect serious outcomes where the parent of an injured child (or worse) takes the mater to court. A way out and failing more and more is to offer the parent a quiet financial settlement with a gag agreement, and sometimes to scapegoat the bus driver. Removing an explosive or otherwise defiant child from the bus before leaving the school is one of the easiest safety actions to defend, both in public and in court, in my opinion. But this action should be entirely separate from the disciplinary process, that is refusal to transport is a protective action, not necessarily a disciplinary (punishment) action. To understand the difference helps the bus driver to prevail every time. (jk)
Stop Violence on the school buses!
Stop bullying and other violence - Complete with excellent video! According to the American Public Health Association, the school bus is the second most common place for bullying to occur (the first is on the playground). This Fast Track slide presentation can help stop bullying on the school buses. Includes class handouts. Free to use in self-study, for class training, and for presentation to the school board. Click Here for Link (See Post # 14)
Stopping Violence on School Buses: Not an Easy Task but One that Can be Accomplished - Click here for source.
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Edited by - JK on 04/17/2011 10:33:43 AM |
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tjankowski18
Active Member
37 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2011 : 6:18:18 PM
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| i allow my high school students only to eat on my bus and if he was cussing i would radio that in immediatly to dispatch thats stuff don't fly on my bus and i'm a special needs school bus driver so that happens alot but thats extreme to where he would have been off the route for a long time |
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ralph55
Active Member
USA
21 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2011 : 12:44:09 PM
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In my district we have school police officers if anything bad happens we can just call them over the radio.WE also have cameras so we can prove what they did. If you have any kind of police officer or security guard I would get them next time.
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Kid Cussing Me Out Because I Gave Him a Ticket
