Bus Driver in Hot Water for Using Brake on Schoolkids

I don't blame the bus driver at all . Kids today are wise mouth punks and the reason for that is the Politicly correct liberal morons who control the Department of Social services have shown kids that Adults cannot disipline them they way they aught to . When I was a kid I wised of to a bus driver once , he stoped the bus got up and slaped me across my face . I never told my father because if I did he probally would've done the same .I'm 50 yrs old and I turned out fine , but if DSS were around when I was a kid my father and mother would still be doing time.

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If the SNOT-MOUTH BRATS can't sit on the bus and be good til they reach their destinations then stop the bus and throw them off and let the parents deal with it.
It's the parents job to educate these BRATS about manners on the bus if they can't then make the parents transport these BRATS, don't punish the bus drivers. Throw the BRATS off the DAMN bus. NUFF SAID.

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When I was a safety patrol back in 1965 our school bus driver did this exact thing. The result was his pastor's first grade daughter slid off of the first seat in the bus, falling to the floor, severing her tongue in half.

This is a VERY dangerous move, I've seen it first hand.

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I agree with Brookee, but if you think it's tough being in a school with some of these children, try being on a school bus alone with them. We have so much wasteful spending in school budgets but have you ever taken a good hard look at what is allocated fro transportation. If some of you parents ever really knew what condition your school buses were really in, you'd never allow your children on them. Most school bus drivers are good, honest hard working, caring people who would never do anything to harm a child and the ones that aren't, we weed them. QUICKLY!! Everything I hear is always about the driver but what you should really be looking at is the company. They are the ones who are making huge profits at the expense of the drivers and the SAFETY ofYOUR CHILDREN!!

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Well, I would do that to my own kids if they were habitually mis-behaving and not follow instructions. We weren't there, but I have heard from my kids that the same people cause all of the problems and they are the basically immune from trouble because the school system is tired of trying to inforce rules with them and the parents usually say my "so-n-so" would never do that. Now, ALL of the trouble makers on the others buses will have more power than the bus driver, like they didn't already...

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I do the exact same thing to my brothers kids when they take their seatbelts off. WHAM! They learn real fast. And if they hurt themselves in the process, even better. Pain increases learning bu a factor of 10, that's why it exists! Why do you think kids are not respectful anymore? Because no one's allowed to discipline them, it might be "abuse". BS. Let the beatings commence!

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My husband has been a Vermont bus driver for 22 years and he has never had to resort to child abuse (nor would he ever) to get the kids to calm down. If they are that out of hand you pull the bus over and call the school. It's bull that the bus driver couldn't handle the heat and resorted to child abuse to get a point across. All of the problems with any bussing has had to do with First Student. There was a kid run over by a First Student bus and the poor child was killed, not that long ago there was a First Student bus that the driver was intoxicated and was heading to the school to pick up children when she back into a building and was thank god caught before she went to pick up those kids. Now there is this incident. This whole thing about leasing busses is a crock. If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. You know kids get a little rambunchous and if you don't know how to keep your bus under control then I guess it wasn't the job for you!

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I am a bus driver and actually I understand. I'm not saying it is the right thing to do but the public who are NOT drivers do not understand what these children do on school buses. You try the pull over approach. You try contacting parents and school officials but honestly not much happens and those children continue their behavior. When one of your children are hurt from another student you might pay attention and realize this is an issue that both parents and schools need to address. I would almost bet most drivers have done something out of frustration because they have no recourse with their school system or parents. Things need to change with our parents and a bus aide on the bus would help 100%.
Can you imagine driving in your car with even say 5 children and they are screaming, hitting, getting up and down, and other behavior that is worse when they are older? What would you do? Would you hit your brake and yell STOP! Would you just say oh please stop that and what if they didn't listen? What if they used curse words at you? Ask yourself what would you do? When you say I wouldn't drive those kids in my car again, well that isn't an option. The school system let these children right back on. So then what? You can't disipline these chidlren yourself because they are not yours. Then what? And remember you are responsible for ALL their safety. So what would you do?
Each and every driver in this country are probably frustrated just like this driver in the story. We need strick policies and when each parent are late for work because THEY have to drive their children each day to school it might change. Or when a child gets beaten or sexually abused from another student then it might change but to blame these frustrated drivers is not fair.
We are usually honest people who love children or we wouldn't have taken this job. We need help from our schools. I hope someone reads this and my comment makes us all think. We as drivers have our hands tied and attached to the wheel. Did everyone forget that this driver is driving these kids? You have no idea how hard this job can be.
You have to be an alert patient and cautious driver at all times even when there is 3 feet of snow falling. Can you say you can do that? Can you say you can drive on black ice with 60 or more children yelling, hitting, and so on and still make it school safely and on time? Every day we bring your children to school safely and no one thanks us or thinks wow that would be a hard situation. And yes, I and many others chose this job but remember it was because we love your children. Why don't you all support us? We carry the most precious cargo of all times and are condemned for making even one mistake. We won't have bus drivers soon if this continues.

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Driving anything for a living is a hard job. So many careless people on the roads these days. Driving a school bus with 30 + kids on it has got to be the worst job ever. Kids should BEHAVE on a School bus, and Cars = PERIOD. I can understand why the bus driver hit the brakes, I did the same thing in the car when my kids were small, it worked. Of course I made sure no one was going to get killed in the process. Kids acting crazy on a bus is dangerous, teach them to sit still & be Quiet, or drive them to school yourself. No sense in a whole bus load of kids getting killed because of a few trouble makers on board.

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Too much is focused on the student getting the lessons, blaming the teacher for their child not being able to learn and failing, or that the child is always sent to the principal for discipline problems and incident reports are written at least three of more times per day or per week on this same student. Yet, nothing is done and it's the other students being hindered from learning as the teacher has to act as a referee, mediator, counselor and police officer.
There is no respect for authority, rules or regulations, it's not their fault and you the responsible adult are to blame, as it's never the child that is wrong!
The only time something is done, when the child that is being taunted and attacked each day by a bully, the parent comes into the school frustrated and complains, then something may be done.
If the student exhibiting bad behavior goes beyond bullying, shoving, hitting, throwing, yelling out, or running around the classroom, seriously does harm to a student, teacher or school property, then actions may take place, but it comes down to not taking action on the first complaint and allowing their behavior to escalate, not making the parent get help for the child or making this family go into counseling, as this behavior only gets worse. Referrals to Family Court may be an option, to get a Persons in Need of Supervision Petition on the child to mandate counseling, as the child is acting out in anger due to frustrations, and don't know another way to deal with them, and that this child may be abused at home or comes from a seriously dysfunctional home, or is often home alone and fending for themselves. Whatever the case, the bully has no right to do harm to others or hinder the well being of anyone.

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Their should be no second chance for that driver.....when it comes to children being tossed around on a school bus, driver needs to have CDL taken away and fired, never allowing them to drive kids again ! End of story....

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In America, if you don't do something, and someone gets hurt your sued. If you try, and do something, and someone gets hurt, your sued. Great system!

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The problem is the driver has no control over who gets on, can't punish misfits. and has to safely operate a large vehicle with screaming kids. Give drivers right to throw off trouble makers as soon as trouble starts and give them a cell phone to notify police and bus office location so they can call parents. Then inform parents they will have to pick up and deliver brat for rest of year or kid can walk. Video cameras don't work, it delays punishment and loses impact on other kids in bus.
I rode bus 11 miles every morning and bus driver used this method at least once a semister and it worked wonders, back then they only had cb and everybody in county knew who had been thrown off bus and why before the kid got home to try excuses

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As a New York State Certified School Bus Driver I say that the driver acted improperly. As a man who grew up in Oklahoma, riding a bus that rarely had children acting up because we knew we would be spanked and sometimes left on the side of the road to walk home, or to school, I say the system is broken! Almost daily I hear students tell me "you can't tell me what to do" and "touch me, and I'll f***ing sue you and you're a** will get fired!" The district supervisor won't ride the bus to see first hand what goes wrong, and watching the bus video after the fact just assists in handing out "stern warnings". Our district even rewards the kids who refuse to be out at he bus stop, and miss the bus miss the bus with a private car sent directly to their home to give them door to door service!
Bottom line; require serious consequenses for the unruly, require that the district administrators frequently ride the busses and deal with the real jackasses first hand, and stop allowing the inmates to run the assylum, so incidents like this are far less likely to occur.

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Simple: If the students were behaving and buckled in their seats, then NO ONE STUDENT would be complaining they hit their heads or rolled down the aisle. Parents complaining, ask your child where they were, and what they were doing to get hurt, and those other parents of the students not complaining, but may have been alerted there may be danger, what they did observe happening and if it were them, what would they have liked to see happen?

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I used to drive a school bus. I enjoyed it more than any other work I have ever done, but it takes a special kind of person to do it. I never had to resort to any action that would hve put "my kids" at risk, but I worked for a great school district in Northern Virginia that supported the drivers in disciplinary action. Three strikes and an unruly child was off the bus for a month. No questions asked. That was usually enough to turn a bad situation around. The district understood that a driver distracted by contant misbehavior was a driver looking backward in her mirror and not at the road.

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If Parents would teach their children how to behave these days , thing like this would not happen so often. Have you ever driven behind a school bus? These kids act like caged animals. These are not the sweet little kids you protray. Kids today show NO respect and how do you expect bus drivers to dodge rude people ( many of you) who pull out infront of them and keep a bus crammed full of kids in order and stay on time? Rotate Parents whos kids ride the bus. Make the parents responsable and let them see how it is.

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We need more like her.These little brats are getting out of hand.Kids today have no respect for others.Keep hitting the brakes lady. They will get the hint.

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the article doesn't say the age of these kids, but when i was in middle school, the bus i rode had a bunch of "wild and wooleys" who just would not behave on the bus. after months of enduring the behavior and trying to verbally reprimand to no avail, our driver finally got fed up one day and instead of saying anything, simply turned the bus around and drove all of us back to the school and told everyone to get off and that she would do this every day if she needed to. guess after the parents had to inconveniently pick up their kids, the kids got a lashing at home cause the wild ones weren't so wild after that day.

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