Bob Velez wrote: >She was suspended >for misbehavior on the bus. Not violence, not drugs, not "kicking the >teacher", not even kicking the bus driver. She was suspended for an >incident that occurred on the bus in which no one was hurt, nor was anyone >put in harm's way. The bus driver complained that she was being >disrespectful to him and had ignored warnings about the bus rules.
[snip] >Suspended from bus privledges would have been appropriate if there was a >real or imagined issue with the driver. Of course, my daughter had plenty >to say about THIS driver's behavior as well. I drove school bus in 1990 and 1991 and would like to make a few points. First, an incident on the bus which distracts the driver from paying attention to the road puts every child on the bus "in harm's way", not to mention the other drivers and pedestrians sharing the road with that bus. Short of a fully loaded semi, or cement-mixer with a full load, a schoolbus is the biggest vehicle on the streets. Second, junior high students as a group are the biggest discipline problems on a bus. A thirteen year old girl is on a bus full of kids who are the most challenging to deal with. A small provocation will almost always escalate unless it is dealt with quickly. Third, in 1991, bus-suspensions were not issued until a child had been written up three times in a school year. I doubt that has drastically changed, so any child who is suspended from the bus is a repeat problem. Students are seldom written up for a first offense. Most drivers will talk to (or yell at) a student the first time. Unless a student is a problem again and again, it's not worth the headaches to write up an offense. So on top of the three written reports it takes to get a student suspended from the bus, there are probably a half-dozen or so other incidents that weren't reported. Most of the drivers I worked with treated suspension from the bus as a very serious matter. Not only does a driver have to spend the time on the paperwork, but they also have a very good chance of having to talk to an irate parent the next morning, gettting a second day's work off to a bad start. On top of that, suspension will make some students' behavior worse, eventually leading to having to ban a kid from the bus entirely. Finally, in an accident, students who are properly seated get hurt much less than those who are standing or in the aisle. In the case of a sudden stop, a student standing in the aisle launches forward. The only things to stop the student flying down the aisle are the windshield, the unpadded front dashboard, or the gearshift. When any of those stops someone, the injuries are seldom minor. Breaking the rules on the bus can be very dangerous. Most children see infractions such as standing in the aisle as minor and don't believe it endangers anyone. Would you care to explain to another parent that their child was seriously injured because your daughter distracted the bus driver and the bus was involved in an accident? Or worse, think how you'd feel as the driver, having to explain to a parent that their daughter was injured or killed because she wouldn't remain in her seat in spite of repeated warnings. Dave Polaschek Marcy-Holmes _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
