The Bus Driver
15 Years Experience
South, ..
Female, 37
I have been a bus driver since late 2006. I know the inside story, the scoop, the down low dirt of what it takes to be a bus driver, how to handle kids and adults, and how to survive on the "streets" so to speak. I used to have a blog, feel free to browse it or ask me a question here.
It varies from state to state, but in my district, the cameras are designed to keep running approximately 10 minutes after the bus has been turned off. This is for safety reasons for the driver and for the kids. It also provides enough time for the bus driver to walk the bus/sweep the bus at the end of the route. This also is proof that the driver is doing their job by walking the bus and prevents the driver from getting in a compromising situation should a student be found on the bus after the route and the bus has been shut off.
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Being shorthanded is a tough subject as many bus shops everywhere are short drivers. Typically though whether or not SPED buses have monitors on them is based by state. I would research the laws in Virginia and see if not having a monitor is illegal on your bus. If it is, then I would make efforts to report the activity to the appropriate authorities. If SPED buses are not required to have monitors on them, then my suggestion is to do the best you can with the resources you have.
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Some school bus drivers may be retired teachers. Generally speaking, no, teachers are not school bus drivers, but paraprofessionals may choose to work as bus drivers to supplement their income too. As for handling badly behaved students, our course of action can include many steps. First we will typically try to manage the behavior on the bus by changing the students seat or assigning seats. Then we try to contact the parents of the student in order to try to get the situation resolved. If that fails then we write the students up and turn them into the schools. From there, the administrators of the school... Read More +
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Personally, I like assigning seats because then each child knows they have a place to sit. A downside to assigned seats is having random children that do not normally ride the route get on a bus with a pass because they are going home with a friend/cousin/to grandmas. In my experience as a substitute, the drivers who have assigned seats on their buses tend to have calmer buses overall. The kids are less likely to act up and the ones that try to are quickly ratted out by other students who enjoy following the rules. Bus drivers do have the right to assign seats, and if I am on a bus and experiencing problems, I will... Read More +
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If a homeless person wants to use your bathroom, are you supposed to stop him?
I don't know if it is against the law per-say, however there have been a few times where I have needed to use a restroom. The ideal location would be on school property where I could run in and out really quickly. The main concern when a bus driver needs to use the restroom is the supervision of the children on the bus. In the cases that I needed to use a bathroom, I asked a fellow bus driver or an administrator to watch the bus while I ran inside to the school to use the bathroom. In all instances, the time spent off the bus was less than 5 minutes, just long enough to relieve myself.
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Well first, you did a good thing by calling the secretary of your school. The thing I would recommend would be calling the bus shop secretary and see if it has been turned in there. If the bus is the same, then you can look in the seat you were sitting in, and hopefully the game will still be there. However, a likely outcome is that someone else picked up your video game and has not turned it in. I'm sad to say that many students are not honest and you have probably lost the game. I hope you are able to recover it and get it back. Good luck!
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Honestly, if anything, I feel that the bullying problem seems to have gotten worse or at least more apparent. There are alot of anti-bullying media campaigns out there because there is an increased awareness of the problem. The issue now is more the bullies who blatantly bully in plain sight. Bullying can take many forms, some obvious, and some very subtle. The thing that has to happen in order for the bullying problem to decrease is for the consequence for bullying be something that the bullies actively dislike. If they don't like the consequence, they will not bully as much. The problem we have in school... Read More +
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