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.
Sometimes situations happen when a parent is not home to receive their child. We typically instruct the child to knock on the door to try to find out if someone is home. If the child cannot get someone to the door, I will usually send an older student to try to knock harder on the door because little fists don't knock very loudly. Failing that, we will radio in to the bus yard in order to try to get a parent on the phone while we finish the route, drop all other students off and then radio back to the bus yard for advice on how to proceed. If the student's parents are still not home, I will walk to the front door and knock, but I will not open it or enter a stranger's home. In cases where the parents are constantly absent from the bus stop, we will actually take the children up to the police station because of the lack of parental supervision for the child.
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If we are driving an older model bus with manually operated doors (the handle has to be lifted and pushed out in order for us to open the door for passengers), we simply shut the door from the outside taking care not to push it too hard to latch. If it latches, fear not, we climb in the back door (which is usually unlocked) and let ourselves into the bus that way. For newer models of buses that have air operated doors, there is a switch that is located above the door labled "emergency release." We flip this switch (on the inside) into the open position and it releases all the air holding the doors closed. We can then push the doors open and then shut them after we get off the bus.
Some drivers have to be careful because their buses will have air leaks which makes it easy to exit the bus for a period of time - opening the door by the air switch, but then when the driver returns, starts the bus, and flips the switch, the air pressure takes time to rebuild. Those drivers will often find themselves summarily accidentally "locked" out when the doors regain pressure and close on the drivers if they are outside the bus when this occurs. In some fleets, the doors are operated by a key accessed panel outside the door which allows the driver to open and close the door from the outside of the bus using key access.
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Yes, many bus drivers choose to separate children by gender, sometimes they put boys on one side and girls on the other, and others will put one gender in the back and the other in the front. The fact that the boys are 3 to a seat is an unfortunate circumstance of your gender on that bus. There is one bus in my district who has twice as many girls as boys, and the bus is separated by gender, so the girls have to sit three to a seat while the boys have alot more space on their side. Could the bus driver even it out a little bit by allowing students to sit in certain seats or reassigning certain areas of the bus - yes, but sometimes its just not practical, or other schools fill in the empty areas. If any girls are sitting only one to a seat then I could see where you have an issue, but if the driver is making an effort to try to divide it somewhat evenly to give everyone a place to sit, then you don't have much of a choice.
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Hello - I deleted your duplicate question in favor of answering here. If you have been threatened, or feel that you have been threatened by someone, go directly to the bus driver, teacher, administrator, parent, anyone who will listen to keep you safe. On my bus, bullying is not tolerated and it will be handled. If you don't get someone to listen, keep telling them until something is done.
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We try our best to stop bullying period. Sometimes even all we do cannot prevent bullying completely. Some kids just end up being victims of these circumstances. Some of the ways we can help stop bullying or at least preventing the situation on the bus would be moving the bullies to areas of the bus where the camera can pick up their actions and voices should the behavior be both physical and verbal. Secondly, we remove the victim from the vicintity of the bully. For example, I would have the bully sit in seat 2 or 3 where I can hear them, and have the victim sit in seat 11 or 12, far enough away from the bully.
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Usually a simple note from your doctor clearing you to drive and handle a bus full of kids is sufficient enough to pass the bus driver physical. New state and federal laws require some drivers to provide a list of their medications at the bus driver physical. Chatham county in Georgia uses First Student - so you may want to look into that company. Good luck!
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First, congratulations! Secondly, best advice I can give is practice. Find an empty parking-lot and see if you can borrow an empty bus to practice pulling between the lines. Play around with the bus a little bit to see how it handles and see how the back wheels turn in conjunction with the front ones. When making any frontward right or left hand turn, you typically swing a bit wide (wider for right hand turns in general) due to the tail swing and rear wheels of the bus and to avoid the curb. When backing into a lane watch your rear wheels through your side rear view mirrors. If you are backing on the right, use the mirrors closest to the student door. If to the left, use the mirrors just outside your drivers side window. One of the mirrors should be trained on the "blindspot" by the rear wheels. Identify the wheels in the mirror and pretend that the wheel is on a dime at the edge of the corner. You want to make the wheel stay still while backing left or right. Think about how you back your car into a parking space and apply the same principle. As you are backing, keep an eye on your front nose so that it does not hit anything. A good judge of the front nose would be the cross mirrors in the front of the bus.
Finally, get a trusted friend to help you identify the dimensions of your bus by standing at the rear bumper as you sit in the drivers seat. Have them stand at all 4 corners of the bus and at the center in back and center in front as you check your mirrors. Also have them stand at the rear wheels so you can identify them visually. This will help you visualize your bus all around. Good luck!
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