Students' taunts reduce bus aide to tears

[Ravi]

Shit, I've done it for a far cheaper hourly wage. It'd be nice if someone would fork over over half a million dollars to me for putting up with some of the kid's shit they try.

She was being insulted to her face and did nothing. Right there, if I was her supervisor, I'd consider whether or not to bring her back after the summer layoff if she can't be effective in student management.

Anything she would have done would have gotten her fired? Horsecrap. You tell the driver to stop the bus and move kids apart and away from her. You inform them their parents WILL be contacted and if they think of riding the bus the following year, they better pray they don't get you again because they'll never sit near their friends again, and any violation of the rules will be a write up till they're never allowed on the bus again.

There are LOTS of ways to make kids behave, but it also takes a few things I didn't see in her. 1. consistant discipline. 2. a forceful demeanor that you are in charge. 3. A knowledge that actions not taken will escalate the situation. 4. realizing the children were acting in an unsafe manner (kids in the aisle mean broken arms legs shoulders or skulls if the brakes get locked up).

I drove very tough buses without an aid, and the one time I had student 'bus patrol' on it, it didn't matter. They were still wild as hell, but at the end of the year, at least I got them to sit safely even if they were a constant roar and no one called me names once, even in Somali because the little kids LOVED to tattle on the big ones and get them in trouble.

The lady needs to say 'thank you' and retire on her cash guilt prize.

She's actually being rewarded for sucking at her job?

yep. over 600k by now by anonymous donations to a website set up to 'buy her a vacation' for what she went through.

I shoulda thought of that scam years ago. I mean yes, she went through a very bad day. I've had ones like that too that left me thinking what the hell was I doing. But because most people don't know what goes on inside that big yellow box, and what pressures are put to bear on those who don't even have aides, they're pity paying.

If we funded public schools better we'd be able to pay for worthwhile employees.

 

[Againsheila]

Shit, I've done it for a far cheaper hourly wage. It'd be nice if someone would fork over over half a million dollars to me for putting up with some of the kid's shit they try.

She was being insulted to her face and did nothing. Right there, if I was her supervisor, I'd consider whether or not to bring her back after the summer layoff if she can't be effective in student management.

Anything she would have done would have gotten her fired? Horsecrap. You tell the driver to stop the bus and move kids apart and away from her. You inform them their parents WILL be contacted and if they think of riding the bus the following year, they better pray they don't get you again because they'll never sit near their friends again, and any violation of the rules will be a write up till they're never allowed on the bus again.

There are LOTS of ways to make kids behave, but it also takes a few things I didn't see in her. 1. consistant discipline. 2. a forceful demeanor that you are in charge. 3. A knowledge that actions not taken will escalate the situation. 4. realizing the children were acting in an unsafe manner (kids in the aisle mean broken arms legs shoulders or skulls if the brakes get locked up).

I drove very tough buses without an aid, and the one time I had student 'bus patrol' on it, it didn't matter. They were still wild as hell, but at the end of the year, at least I got them to sit safely even if they were a constant roar and no one called me names once, even in Somali because the little kids LOVED to tattle on the big ones and get them in trouble.

The lady needs to say 'thank you' and retire on her cash guilt prize.

She's actually being rewarded for sucking at her job?

yep. over 600k by now by anonymous donations to a website set up to 'buy her a vacation' for what she went through.

I shoulda thought of that scam years ago. I mean yes, she went through a very bad day. I've had ones like that too that left me thinking what the hell was I doing. But because most people don't know what goes on inside that big yellow box, and what pressures are put to bear on those who don't even have aides, they're pity paying.

As a mother, I rode that big yellow bus a couple of times..I don't know how the bus drivers do it. I believe they are all underpaid. That said, I think those griping about this woman getting a paypal account and donations are jealous.

 

[rightwinger]

The entire thing smells fishy to me. I still can't tell if they are addressing her, talking behind her back, or addressing and insulting each other. If she didn't watch the youtube video she'd probably not think anything happened.

But yeah, I will sit on a school bus and be insulted for $650,000.

Shit, I've done it for a far cheaper hourly wage. It'd be nice if someone would fork over over half a million dollars to me for putting up with some of the kid's shit they try.

She was being insulted to her face and did nothing. Right there, if I was her supervisor, I'd consider whether or not to bring her back after the summer layoff if she can't be effective in student management.

Anything she would have done would have gotten her fired? Horsecrap. You tell the driver to stop the bus and move kids apart and away from her. You inform them their parents WILL be contacted and if they think of riding the bus the following year, they better pray they don't get you again because they'll never sit near their friends again, and any violation of the rules will be a write up till they're never allowed on the bus again.

There are LOTS of ways to make kids behave, but it also takes a few things I didn't see in her. 1. consistant discipline. 2. a forceful demeanor that you are in charge. 3. A knowledge that actions not taken will escalate the situation. 4. realizing the children were acting in an unsafe manner (kids in the aisle mean broken arms legs shoulders or skulls if the brakes get locked up).

I drove very tough buses without an aid, and the one time I had student 'bus patrol' on it, it didn't matter. They were still wild as hell, but at the end of the year, at least I got them to sit safely even if they were a constant roar and no one called me names once, even in Somali because the little kids LOVED to tattle on the big ones and get them in trouble.

The lady needs to say 'thank you' and retire on her cash guilt prize.

She's actually being rewarded for sucking at her job?

Seems that way doesn't it?

At no point during the 10 min video does she make an effort to show she is in charge and that there will be consequences. I know she cannot touch the little darlings, but she must have been given something in her discipline tool box to report unruly behavior

Also, where was the driver? Seems at some point the bus gets stopped and the kids get seperated

 

[Katzndogz]

The children should not be allowed to take the bus. Let their parents figure out a way to get them to school.

 

[High_Gravity]

The children should not be allowed to take the bus. Let their parents figure out a way to get them to school.

I agree with that.

 

[Big Fitz]

"she is a lousy bus aide" doesn't excuse the children's behavior.

No, it doesn't. But by being a lousy bus aide, she set herself up for an incident like that.

I've had to expel two kids from the bus for "insubordination", and threaten to do so to 2 others. You don't get to tell me 'whatever', or blow off my orders or get lippy with me. That earns a 'major' writeup which often gets a suspension, separation from their friends by assigned seating, and if other kids join in, the whole bus gets assigned seating and loses radio and food priviledges.

Then again... day one I announce to the kids "I am the mean bus driver. I will let you earn priviledges if you behave well. Just obeying the rules is not enough to earn these priviledges. I also believe in collective punishment if I cannot find the culprit responsible for breaking rules so don't hide them. You will be punished too then. BUT if you behave maturely you will find my bus to be a fun place. You can sit with your friends, eat and drink or even get the radio if there is one."

They usually figure out I meant it by week 2-4 of testing me on it. They also learn I will enforce the rules to the last trip.

All the drivers I saw who were successful with problem buses with out of control kids were the same way. I've been tipped and rewarded by parents for doing such a good job, and schools have specifically requested me to handle charters because I am strict with the kids. I took that as a great honor, because I've also had children who were problem children beg me to come back and be their driver next year. That is the best praise of all.

That aide was on that bus because one of three reasons. 1. State law. 2. Special Needs. 3. Bad kids. If it's anything but #1, she failed in her job, last day or no. Is it sad, but I'm sure she's gotten a lot of whispering about her in the driver's room about not doing her damn job and why she got rewarded for it when they all face that and worse every day.

There's a lot of jealousy in that post...

Jealousy? More like WTF?!? If a driver or aide gets abused like that and does NOTHING about it, but plays the victim you know what most bus companies do? Remove them from the route because they are incapable of handling the stresses of the job and put someone like me in there. I guess what gets my ire up the most are people essentially rewarding her for not being able to do the job. Working with kids, yeah, rough days happen.

 

[Big Fitz]

The children should not be allowed to take the bus. Let their parents figure out a way to get them to school.

And that's what's happening to those kids next year.

 

[Big Fitz]

She's actually being rewarded for sucking at her job?

yep. over 600k by now by anonymous donations to a website set up to 'buy her a vacation' for what she went through.

I shoulda thought of that scam years ago. I mean yes, she went through a very bad day. I've had ones like that too that left me thinking what the hell was I doing. But because most people don't know what goes on inside that big yellow box, and what pressures are put to bear on those who don't even have aides, they're pity paying.

If we funded public schools better we'd be able to pay for worthwhile employees.

Realities of the business. School districts will not cut admin, union and staff lawyer salaries to do this because these drivers and aids are part time employees. Depending on the size of your district, the typical driver is paid between 11 and 18 bucks an hour, aides far less. They get often between 15 and 35 hours a week unless they get to suppliment with a charter. The typical average seems to be about 20 hours a week. Then there's the summer layoff. Some states bar drivers from collecting unemployment because it's a "known seasonal layoff", forcing them to get another job. It's a supplimental income job unless you work in a BIG school area like I did in the twin cities. You could make a living 9 months out of the year. It was that summer break that killed you every time. And that's also dependent on the company.

Face it, most schools can't afford a higher quality of driver and most people can't handle the work. They want a warm body who'll show up at 6am to drive for 1.5-3 hours and then again in the afternoon at 2pm like clockwork with no excuses or being late. You have to be able to handle students and know when to ignore their crap, and when to let em have it for their own safety and well being. Most of all, you have to be in control of yourself and never let them get the best of you or you're done. Do this on top of handling narrow streets or 5 lane interstates with lousy insane amateur drivers who act like school bus yellow is blaze orange and they're deer.

That woman right there will never get back the ability to work in that district again effectively. Every kid in the system will know about it soon enough and know she can be badgered to tears and be too afraid to do her job to maintain discipline. Again. She seems to be a sweet lady. I think the idea of a nice vacation for her was a great idea of an apology. Seeing 600k plus roll in seems outlandish and would have never happened till that kid posted the video on facebook or whatever, THAT is when it really took off. Before that, they got maybe a thousand dollars.

It's a revealing statement on our society's morality. Throw money at it and it will make it better. That's what I find so perplexing. What did she do to deserve that money outside of suffer NORMAL job pressures on a bad day? People somehow feel that throwing a few bucks at her is going to make things better? Well, she can retire safely now in that, it's a good thing. I hope she does because if she tries to go back to work, she's a gonner. Take the money and run, but don't expect any respectable bus driver who's good at their job to be applauding her for what she did.

 

[Againsheila]

yep. over 600k by now by anonymous donations to a website set up to 'buy her a vacation' for what she went through.

I shoulda thought of that scam years ago. I mean yes, she went through a very bad day. I've had ones like that too that left me thinking what the hell was I doing. But because most people don't know what goes on inside that big yellow box, and what pressures are put to bear on those who don't even have aides, they're pity paying.

If we funded public schools better we'd be able to pay for worthwhile employees.

Realities of the business. School districts will not cut admin, union and staff lawyer salaries to do this because these drivers and aids are part time employees. Depending on the size of your district, the typical driver is paid between 11 and 18 bucks an hour, aides far less. They get often between 15 and 35 hours a week unless they get to suppliment with a charter. The typical average seems to be about 20 hours a week. Then there's the summer layoff. Some states bar drivers from collecting unemployment because it's a "known seasonal layoff", forcing them to get another job. It's a supplimental income job unless you work in a BIG school area like I did in the twin cities. You could make a living 9 months out of the year. It was that summer break that killed you every time. And that's also dependent on the company.

Face it, most schools can't afford a higher quality of driver and most people can't handle the work. They want a warm body who'll show up at 6am to drive for 1.5-3 hours and then again in the afternoon at 2pm like clockwork with no excuses or being late. You have to be able to handle students and know when to ignore their crap, and when to let em have it for their own safety and well being. Most of all, you have to be in control of yourself and never let them get the best of you or you're done. Do this on top of handling narrow streets or 5 lane interstates with lousy insane amateur drivers who act like school bus yellow is blaze orange and they're deer.

That woman right there will never get back the ability to work in that district again effectively. Every kid in the system will know about it soon enough and know she can be badgered to tears and be too afraid to do her job to maintain discipline. Again. She seems to be a sweet lady. I think the idea of a nice vacation for her was a great idea of an apology. Seeing 600k plus roll in seems outlandish and would have never happened till that kid posted the video on facebook or whatever, THAT is when it really took off. Before that, they got maybe a thousand dollars.

It's a revealing statement on our society's morality. Throw money at it and it will make it better. That's what I find so perplexing. What did she do to deserve that money outside of suffer NORMAL job pressures on a bad day? People somehow feel that throwing a few bucks at her is going to make things better? Well, she can retire safely now in that, it's a good thing. I hope she does because if she tries to go back to work, she's a gonner. Take the money and run, but don't expect any respectable bus driver who's good at their job to be applauding her for what she did.

Again, dripping with jealousy. I'm not saying what she did was right, I'm saying what the kids did was wrong and I'm happy that some people took it among themselves to get her out of that job so that she could retire. Would I like someone to give my 1/2 million for my troubles? Sure. Is it gonna happen, no. I do not begrudge this woman anything. All I can think of is how she felt when that kid said if she was his mother, he would commit suicide, knowing that her own son did commit suicide. I don't care how much money she gets, it's not gonna make that pain go away.

 

[Big Fitz]

If we funded public schools better we'd be able to pay for worthwhile employees.

Realities of the business. School districts will not cut admin, union and staff lawyer salaries to do this because these drivers and aids are part time employees. Depending on the size of your district, the typical driver is paid between 11 and 18 bucks an hour, aides far less. They get often between 15 and 35 hours a week unless they get to suppliment with a charter. The typical average seems to be about 20 hours a week. Then there's the summer layoff. Some states bar drivers from collecting unemployment because it's a "known seasonal layoff", forcing them to get another job. It's a supplimental income job unless you work in a BIG school area like I did in the twin cities. You could make a living 9 months out of the year. It was that summer break that killed you every time. And that's also dependent on the company.

Face it, most schools can't afford a higher quality of driver and most people can't handle the work. They want a warm body who'll show up at 6am to drive for 1.5-3 hours and then again in the afternoon at 2pm like clockwork with no excuses or being late. You have to be able to handle students and know when to ignore their crap, and when to let em have it for their own safety and well being. Most of all, you have to be in control of yourself and never let them get the best of you or you're done. Do this on top of handling narrow streets or 5 lane interstates with lousy insane amateur drivers who act like school bus yellow is blaze orange and they're deer.

That woman right there will never get back the ability to work in that district again effectively. Every kid in the system will know about it soon enough and know she can be badgered to tears and be too afraid to do her job to maintain discipline. Again. She seems to be a sweet lady. I think the idea of a nice vacation for her was a great idea of an apology. Seeing 600k plus roll in seems outlandish and would have never happened till that kid posted the video on facebook or whatever, THAT is when it really took off. Before that, they got maybe a thousand dollars.

It's a revealing statement on our society's morality. Throw money at it and it will make it better. That's what I find so perplexing. What did she do to deserve that money outside of suffer NORMAL job pressures on a bad day? People somehow feel that throwing a few bucks at her is going to make things better? Well, she can retire safely now in that, it's a good thing. I hope she does because if she tries to go back to work, she's a gonner. Take the money and run, but don't expect any respectable bus driver who's good at their job to be applauding her for what she did.

Again, dripping with jealousy. I'm not saying what she did was right, I'm saying what the kids did was wrong and I'm happy that some people took it among themselves to get her out of that job so that she could retire. Would I like someone to give my 1/2 million for my troubles? Sure. Is it gonna happen, no. I do not begrudge this woman anything. All I can think of is how she felt when that kid said if she was his mother, he would commit suicide, knowing that her own son did commit suicide. I don't care how much money she gets, it's not gonna make that pain go away.

You call it jealousy if you want. How would you feel if someone you discovered was incompetant in your same field and suddenly was paid out two thirds of a million dollars because someone posted them crying about it on facebook? I bet you'd be pretty damn outraged about the stupidity of the vox populi for not getting the reality of the situation. If the money isn't going to make the pain go away, what the hell good is it?

So she scored and won the pity lotto. Take the money and retire. Don't expect a medal or sympathy for being unable to do the job which was obvious in the video. She had half a dozen options she could have used to get that situation under control and she used none of them. Understand how much of that situation was HER fault as well as those monstrous children's.

Know who else is to blame for that crap going bad? The driver. She's your co worker and was in OBVIOUS distress, and although not all of that could be heard up front some of it could have been figured out by paying attention to your load. I've done it. Most other drivers do too. But if you're like others I've known that treat the kids like nothing more than 'swinging meat' to be ignored as long as they don't interfere with driving and get off the bus safely, then you're not doing your job either as a driver.

I'm just as 'jealous' as you. Would I like to get a half million for a shitty day at work? Hell yeah! Maybe a million. Who wouldn't. How guilty would I feel knowing that I got paid because people viewed me out of pity and KNEW I was in that situation because I couldn't do the job? Pretty damn guilty.

So. Let her retire, because she won't be able to do the job any more and that was a bigger payday than she possibly ever will see, unless the husband's got a great job and killer pension.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Hmm. She's berated by a buch of teenage douches, people feel sorry for her and give her money (which she never asked for), and all of a sudden a bunch of grown up douches are berating her.

I'd say that about sums it up. Seems like the "grown up" douches are just jealous.

Yep Screw the principle, all's well so long as you get some $$$ out of it. Such is the world our self-centeredness and antipathy continue to create.

How sad for you. Rather than seeing the generosity and outpouring of sympathy and offers of aid to a senior citizen who was brutalized by a pack of entitled delinquents, you bitch that the only reason she put up with that kind of shit was to benefit financially. I remind you, she did not video record the incident, nor did she post it to the net. But good, decent people feeling empathy for her plight came forth of their own free will to provide some help for her. Where's that famous gift of giving that libturds claim sole ownership of? Granted, people of all persuasions no doubt donated, but only libturd assholes are bitching about the poor woman being provided substantial and real assistance.

 

[tigerbob]

No, it doesn't. But by being a lousy bus aide, she set herself up for an incident like that.

I've had to expel two kids from the bus for "insubordination", and threaten to do so to 2 others. You don't get to tell me 'whatever', or blow off my orders or get lippy with me. That earns a 'major' writeup which often gets a suspension, separation from their friends by assigned seating, and if other kids join in, the whole bus gets assigned seating and loses radio and food priviledges.

Then again... day one I announce to the kids "I am the mean bus driver. I will let you earn priviledges if you behave well. Just obeying the rules is not enough to earn these priviledges. I also believe in collective punishment if I cannot find the culprit responsible for breaking rules so don't hide them. You will be punished too then. BUT if you behave maturely you will find my bus to be a fun place. You can sit with your friends, eat and drink or even get the radio if there is one."

They usually figure out I meant it by week 2-4 of testing me on it. They also learn I will enforce the rules to the last trip.

All the drivers I saw who were successful with problem buses with out of control kids were the same way. I've been tipped and rewarded by parents for doing such a good job, and schools have specifically requested me to handle charters because I am strict with the kids. I took that as a great honor, because I've also had children who were problem children beg me to come back and be their driver next year. That is the best praise of all.

That aide was on that bus because one of three reasons. 1. State law. 2. Special Needs. 3. Bad kids. If it's anything but #1, she failed in her job, last day or no. Is it sad, but I'm sure she's gotten a lot of whispering about her in the driver's room about not doing her damn job and why she got rewarded for it when they all face that and worse every day.

There's a lot of jealousy in that post...

Jealousy? More like WTF?!? If a driver or aide gets abused like that and does NOTHING about it, but plays the victim you know what most bus companies do? Remove them from the route because they are incapable of handling the stresses of the job and put someone like me in there. I guess what gets my ire up the most are people essentially rewarding her for not being able to do the job. Working with kids, yeah, rough days happen.

Playing the victim because what the kids said didn't really bother her at all, you mean? Or playing the victim by saying it did bother her when she could have just lied and said it was no big deal?

The problem with this story is the money she got, which trivializes the issue and turns a discussion about how overly tolerant society is of this sort of behavior into a discussion about how a useless employee made out like a bandit by playing the victim.

 

[gallantwarrior]

That is what I could not figure out. I can see if a 69 year old is harrassed on a public bus. But she was hired to be a bus monitor. The person being paid to keep the peace. She must have been trained somehow. If things get out of hand, there must be some procedure in place for her to go up to the driver, have the bus stopped and nobody moves until order is restored

All through the ordeal I kept saying...When is she going too do something?

She was questioned about this. What she said was that anything she did would have gotten her fired. Anything she said would have gotten her fired. As is true with most child/adult situations the child is in total control and never punished. Only the adult is punished.

Surely she is not encouraged to get into a physical confrontation with teens. There must be a process in place for reporting their behavior and disciplining them. Otherwise you need a Sky Marshal on the bus, not an old lady.

You shouldn't need a Sky Marshall or an animal trainer on that bus because all those brats who participated should be banned from riding any school bus, at least for the next school year.

 

[Big Fitz]

I'd say that about sums it up. Seems like the "grown up" douches are just jealous.

Yep Screw the principle, all's well so long as you get some $$$ out of it. Such is the world our self-centeredness and antipathy continue to create.

How sad for you. Rather than seeing the generosity and outpouring of sympathy and offers of aid to a senior citizen who was brutalized by a pack of entitled delinquents, you bitch that the only reason she put up with that kind of shit was to benefit financially. I remind you, she did not video record the incident, nor did she post it to the net. But good, decent people feeling empathy for her plight came forth of their own free will to provide some help for her. Where's that famous gift of giving that libturds claim sole ownership of? Granted, people of all persuasions no doubt donated, but only libturd assholes are bitching about the poor woman being provided substantial and real assistance.

And before that dumbass kid posted it on whatever site it was originally, Youtube I think to show what a 'badass' he was, the donations to her vacation fund was in the few hundred to just over a thousand dollars. This is something else I will point out. She didn't know about the website till after it went viral. She's not to blame for getting this money. I don't fault her for that. She didn't do it and was just as surprised. What I do say's fucked up is people throwing money at her not understanding the situation in total or the requirements of the job she wasn't fulfilling. She never played the victim for money, ignorant people made her into a martyr of passivity for their own feelings of shame, guilt or horror requiring absolution. That's why I say, take the money and run. My ire is for those who seem to think that she 'earned' it for her suffering and don't know the first damn thing about the business she's in.

Any other school bus drivers out there on this board who have an opinion?

 

[gallantwarrior]

Saw the videos and her interview.

She is a lousy bus aide. You don't ignore this behavior, you punish it and FAST even on the last day of the year you do it. I'd consider taking her off that school and finding an easier route for her, or consider asking her to retire.

Second, those kids should be banned from the bus for at least the following year.

And yes, I worked in the industry and know how hard it is. My companies always seem to put me on routes that have eaten other drivers alive, and always end up with well behave buses within months.

"she is a lousy bus aide" doesn't excuse the children's behavior.

No, it doesn't. But by being a lousy bus aide, she set herself up for an incident like that.

I've had to expel two kids from the bus for "insubordination", and threaten to do so to 2 others. You don't get to tell me 'whatever', or blow off my orders or get lippy with me. That earns a 'major' writeup which often gets a suspension, separation from their friends by assigned seating, and if other kids join in, the whole bus gets assigned seating and loses radio and food priviledges.

Then again... day one I announce to the kids "I am the mean bus driver. I will let you earn priviledges if you behave well. Just obeying the rules is not enough to earn these priviledges. I also believe in collective punishment if I cannot find the culprit responsible for breaking rules so don't hide them. You will be punished too then. BUT if you behave maturely you will find my bus to be a fun place. You can sit with your friends, eat and drink or even get the radio if there is one."

They usually figure out I meant it by week 2-4 of testing me on it. They also learn I will enforce the rules to the last trip.

All the drivers I saw who were successful with problem buses with out of control kids were the same way. I've been tipped and rewarded by parents for doing such a good job, and schools have specifically requested me to handle charters because I am strict with the kids. I took that as a great honor, because I've also had children who were problem children beg me to come back and be their driver next year. That is the best praise of all.

That aide was on that bus because one of three reasons. 1. State law. 2. Special Needs. 3. Bad kids. If it's anything but #1, she failed in her job, last day or no. Is it sad, but I'm sure she's gotten a lot of whispering about her in the driver's room about not doing her damn job and why she got rewarded for it when they all face that and worse every day.

Many people never figure out that it is far easier to lighten up the rules than the reverse. If you start out "easy", you often never are able to put the hammer down if it proves needed.

 

[Big Fitz]

She was questioned about this. What she said was that anything she did would have gotten her fired. Anything she said would have gotten her fired. As is true with most child/adult situations the child is in total control and never punished. Only the adult is punished.

Surely she is not encouraged to get into a physical confrontation with teens. There must be a process in place for reporting their behavior and disciplining them. Otherwise you need a Sky Marshal on the bus, not an old lady.

You shouldn't need a Sky Marshall or an animal trainer on that bus because all those brats who participated should be banned from riding any school bus, at least for the next school year.

The school district is already taking action. She still won't be able to be effective in this job even if she does stay in it. I have seen what happens when a driver or aide loses it and the kids get to them. They never can drive in that district again, or at least that school. The packs of wolves would be on her so fast and they'd be smarter to NOT put their activities online.

 

[Big Fitz]

"she is a lousy bus aide" doesn't excuse the children's behavior.

No, it doesn't. But by being a lousy bus aide, she set herself up for an incident like that.

I've had to expel two kids from the bus for "insubordination", and threaten to do so to 2 others. You don't get to tell me 'whatever', or blow off my orders or get lippy with me. That earns a 'major' writeup which often gets a suspension, separation from their friends by assigned seating, and if other kids join in, the whole bus gets assigned seating and loses radio and food priviledges.

Then again... day one I announce to the kids "I am the mean bus driver. I will let you earn priviledges if you behave well. Just obeying the rules is not enough to earn these priviledges. I also believe in collective punishment if I cannot find the culprit responsible for breaking rules so don't hide them. You will be punished too then. BUT if you behave maturely you will find my bus to be a fun place. You can sit with your friends, eat and drink or even get the radio if there is one."

They usually figure out I meant it by week 2-4 of testing me on it. They also learn I will enforce the rules to the last trip.

All the drivers I saw who were successful with problem buses with out of control kids were the same way. I've been tipped and rewarded by parents for doing such a good job, and schools have specifically requested me to handle charters because I am strict with the kids. I took that as a great honor, because I've also had children who were problem children beg me to come back and be their driver next year. That is the best praise of all.

That aide was on that bus because one of three reasons. 1. State law. 2. Special Needs. 3. Bad kids. If it's anything but #1, she failed in her job, last day or no. Is it sad, but I'm sure she's gotten a lot of whispering about her in the driver's room about not doing her damn job and why she got rewarded for it when they all face that and worse every day.

Many people never figure out that it is far easier to lighten up the rules than the reverse. If you start out "easy", you often never are able to put the hammer down if it proves needed.

Often true. I usually start a little light at first to get a feel for the bus and give them the chance to prove themselves. But I do make the announcement I am still the mean bus driver. If they won't listen, they're quickly gone from the bus. You cannot have them flout your authority because your life, their lives and the lives of everyone around that 16000 lbs bus is in your hands. You have up to 50 sets of parents counting on you to do your job professionally and safely to protect their children from all dangers inside and outside the bus. If you fuck up, the company often won't back you. The school won't help you and the parents will slaughter you in court. That's a lot of pressure when you realize it, and she didn't have to worry about lots of that because she was only an aide. Of course she had other pressures like potentially dealing with disabled children and those with special needs. That's a whole new challenge there, but the difficulties she had were 100% on the bus issues and she's supposed to take some of the pressure off the driver (who did her NO favors either, and I didn't hear his/her voice once. Bad sign) so they can focus on the road.

If you can't stomach being the mean person and have the kids hate you or say mean things to you and need them to be your friend, never drive school bus. You're not cut out for it.

 

[tigerbob]

I'd say that about sums it up. Seems like the "grown up" douches are just jealous.

Yep Screw the principle, all's well so long as you get some $$$ out of it. Such is the world our self-centeredness and antipathy continue to create.

How sad for you. Rather than seeing the generosity and outpouring of sympathy and offers of aid to a senior citizen who was brutalized by a pack of entitled delinquents, you bitch that the only reason she put up with that kind of shit was to benefit financially. I remind you, she did not video record the incident, nor did she post it to the net. But good, decent people feeling empathy for her plight came forth of their own free will to provide some help for her. Where's that famous gift of giving that libturds claim sole ownership of? Granted, people of all persuasions no doubt donated, but only libturd assholes are bitching about the poor woman being provided substantial and real assistance.

Before you go bandying around epithets, you might want to consider how two consecutive posts from me can be so diametrically opposed in sentiment, and then wonder whether perhaps you have completely misread the meaning of one of them.

Once you're re-read them and realized "Oh shit, it was sarcasm - he was actually agreeing with me", you might additionally wonder whether I'm still a Libtard, or whether I'm now a Repugnican.

 

[gallantwarrior]

yep. over 600k by now by anonymous donations to a website set up to 'buy her a vacation' for what she went through.

I shoulda thought of that scam years ago. I mean yes, she went through a very bad day. I've had ones like that too that left me thinking what the hell was I doing. But because most people don't know what goes on inside that big yellow box, and what pressures are put to bear on those who don't even have aides, they're pity paying.

If we funded public schools better we'd be able to pay for worthwhile employees.

Realities of the business. School districts will not cut admin, union and staff lawyer salaries to do this because these drivers and aids are part time employees. Depending on the size of your district, the typical driver is paid between 11 and 18 bucks an hour, aides far less. They get often between 15 and 35 hours a week unless they get to suppliment with a charter. The typical average seems to be about 20 hours a week. Then there's the summer layoff. Some states bar drivers from collecting unemployment because it's a "known seasonal layoff", forcing them to get another job. It's a supplimental income job unless you work in a BIG school area like I did in the twin cities. You could make a living 9 months out of the year. It was that summer break that killed you every time. And that's also dependent on the company.

Face it, most schools can't afford a higher quality of driver and most people can't handle the work. They want a warm body who'll show up at 6am to drive for 1.5-3 hours and then again in the afternoon at 2pm like clockwork with no excuses or being late. You have to be able to handle students and know when to ignore their crap, and when to let em have it for their own safety and well being. Most of all, you have to be in control of yourself and never let them get the best of you or you're done. Do this on top of handling narrow streets or 5 lane interstates with lousy insane amateur drivers who act like school bus yellow is blaze orange and they're deer.

That woman right there will never get back the ability to work in that district again effectively. Every kid in the system will know about it soon enough and know she can be badgered to tears and be too afraid to do her job to maintain discipline. Again. She seems to be a sweet lady. I think the idea of a nice vacation for her was a great idea of an apology. Seeing 600k plus roll in seems outlandish and would have never happened till that kid posted the video on facebook or whatever, THAT is when it really took off. Before that, they got maybe a thousand dollars.

It's a revealing statement on our society's morality. Throw money at it and it will make it better. That's what I find so perplexing. What did she do to deserve that money outside of suffer NORMAL job pressures on a bad day? People somehow feel that throwing a few bucks at her is going to make things better? Well, she can retire safely now in that, it's a good thing. I hope she does because if she tries to go back to work, she's a gonner. Take the money and run, but don't expect any respectable bus driver who's good at their job to be applauding her for what she did.

Interestingly enough, in the when and where I grew up, they hired high school seniors to drive the school buses. The high school was co-located with the grammar school (grades 1-8, K was still an option), so this was a very cost effective and convenient arrangement. Not only that, but many of the high school students carried .22's and shotguns to school (to be secured in their lockers) because lots of us would get off the bus a couple of stops early and hunt rabbits and birds on the way home. We didn't need bus monitors because every one of us knew that the 20-30 mile drive to school would mean a l-o-n-g walk if we got kicked off the bus 'cause our parents would surely not see fit to drive our asses should we commit some violation that would get us booted off the bus.

Times, they do be changin'...and not for the better.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Yep Screw the principle, all's well so long as you get some $$$ out of it. Such is the world our self-centeredness and antipathy continue to create.

How sad for you. Rather than seeing the generosity and outpouring of sympathy and offers of aid to a senior citizen who was brutalized by a pack of entitled delinquents, you bitch that the only reason she put up with that kind of shit was to benefit financially. I remind you, she did not video record the incident, nor did she post it to the net. But good, decent people feeling empathy for her plight came forth of their own free will to provide some help for her. Where's that famous gift of giving that libturds claim sole ownership of? Granted, people of all persuasions no doubt donated, but only libturd assholes are bitching about the poor woman being provided substantial and real assistance.

And before that dumbass kid posted it on whatever site it was originally, Youtube I think to show what a 'badass' he was, the donations to her vacation fund was in the few hundred to just over a thousand dollars. This is something else I will point out. She didn't know about the website till after it went viral. She's not to blame for getting this money. I don't fault her for that. She didn't do it and was just as surprised. What I do say's fucked up is people throwing money at her not understanding the situation in total or the requirements of the job she wasn't fulfilling. She never played the victim for money, ignorant people made her into a martyr of passivity for their own feelings of shame, guilt or horror requiring absolution. That's why I say, take the money and run. My ire is for those who seem to think that she 'earned' it for her suffering and don't know the first damn thing about the business she's in.

Any other school bus drivers out there on this board who have an opinion?

Maybe people contributing to a fund for her is "fucked up" in the opinions of some. It's just as fucked up as condemning either Martin or Zimmerman without more information. People will respond to things as they see fit. I just think this particular response shows much more compassion than people have recently been attributed.