I am going to journal my experiences. Start my own thread. Life and trials of a new school bus driver.

I will keep my updates and new posts in my original post to make it easier for you all to follow and read with dates. The names used will not be real to protect the innocent and not so innocent.

I just started driving for a local school system. I had a great trainer, got my CDL and just started my route solo this past Monday. Coming from law enforcement, and teaching in a group home for troubled boys gave me a work experience to handle most issues. Then I drove a 45’ bus RV around the country for 10 years I have an advantage in driving. But putting the driving into the mix brings it to a whole new level. The school systems are always looking for new drivers. What the route schedulers do and how they orchestrate it is amazing. Put bus break downs and student bus transfers and it makes things interesting. I had a 3rd grader leave his book bag this morning on the bus….school attendant yelled to stop me. Cole with tears and being devastated that his hard work he put in for his assignments. Got his book bag and I asked for a fist bump on his way out. It’s just a small time the drivers have a with the kids but some of them have home lives that would make any normal human puke. There will be many stories I will have from this job but why not it’s better then just sitting on my ass doing nothing.

Oh Monday my first day alone. First being the new driver I get one of the older buses. Seniority has its advantages. On my morning route I found my bus losing power and having an exhaust indicator on the dash. The exhaust particulate can was plugged. I called dispatch they had me finish picking up the street I was on. Had a bus delivered within fifteen minutes. I transferred my students and finished my route. The afternoon I took out a spare bus. On my HS route almost finished one a half a block away from dropping off my last student the bus shuts down. Un able to start. I radio to dispatch my problems and the coordinate another bus picking up my elementary route. So I set up my triangles and my HS students walked that extra half a block. A mechanic picked me up and delivered me to meet the bus with my kids. That bus a connector let loose.

My goal is to make an impression on the students with as little time I have with them during the day.

The dispatch or as we call it base and school has the ability to monitor the locations of every bus, can look at vital information on the bus systems, and monitor speed. They are all equipped with cameras that can be reviewed. Most but not all (the older buses) have cameras that all seats in the bus is being recorded. Also a camera on the drivers side that can monitor stop arm violators. I have had two stop arm violators already. One couldn’t wait 30 seconds behind me as I was getting a second grader to the door. The second was a van lady was to busy looking at her phone.
With a push of a button I mark the tape for review. Do a report and they sent it off to LE.

Most of my pickups are door side with the exception of small down town streets.

The adventure begins

08/30/23
Thursday morning as the intermediate school kids (4-6 grade)are getting off the bus one of my boys said there is dog crap on the floor back there. After dropping off the last of my kids the cute little kindergartners at the primary I pull off to the side and check all seats and floors for items left or any sleeping kids. We call it no kids left behind. We have an alarm system set up in every bus. As soon as the key is turned off you have very short time to walk to the back of the bus to push a switch or raise the handle of the emergency door to shut the system off if you don’t the headlights, hazards, and horn will set off. So I am checking the seats and the floor. Sure enough a pile of dog crap left on the floor seat 19. Not quite solid I would say about mashed potato consistency. Making a mental note to myself to include latex gloves in my kit for clean ups. It wasn’t there after the high school run so it was one of my younger kids bringing it in a book bag and depositing it on the floor. Now since I am in one of the older buses, manual door opener, over 200,000 miles the camera system is not as elaborate as the newer models. I only have a front and rear camera. Second note to self finish the assigned seating chart required to be implemented by the second week of September a little sooner. Put in request to have hard drive reviewed to see if we can narrow the culprit(s) down.

Thursday afternoon seat assignment done with name magnets above the seats. Not a happy time for some because they are not sitting where they want. Two students moved to a different seat and one the seat magnet with her name was taken along with the name of the the girl whose seat she moved to. The other just moved his name magnet to the seat where he moved to. I did not tell them they did not have permission to touch the name tag magnets. Mahabad, that was taken care of Friday morning. Good thing extra blank name tag magnets were made. Also behavior forms were made and will be forwarded to the their building principals.

09/01/23
Friday afternoon I have my rewards set up with my elementary bus population. A bag of dum dum suckers. It’s what I call the carrot. A reward for good behavior. I told them they get one warning to remain seated and keep their hands in the bus. The second time no reward. It worked, only one child did not receive the reward. Setting expectations and limits with follow through. I put my kindergartners up in the front seats on the passenger side so I can see them. Keeping an eye on them as they start to fall asleep. I try to keep them awake by asking them questions about their day, but Jenny (not real name) started dozing off to lala land sliding off the seat. So my attempts to keeping her awake by saying her name was slowly failing and losing the battle as her eyelids became heavier and heavier. With one last attempt by saying her name a little louder and telling her she was almost home I won this time by stopping the bus at her stop and turning her over to her waiting parent. Whew, I averted having to stop the bus on the side of the street and getting her to back up on the seat.

Not knowing all of their names yet trying to tell an individual that they need to remain sitting or their hands inside the bus makes it a bit challenging. Hey you with the pony tails or with the blue shirt on doesn’t quite work as well as saying a first name.

Good luck

I would not have the patience

I could not do your job.


My funniest bus memory was 5th grade, it was winter and there was lots of snow on the ground. Bus driver Steve stops the bus on the afternoon drop off to let my classmate Mike off. Mike gets off and promptly makes a large snowball and throws it with Major League accuracy at the bus…right into the open side bus driver window smack into Steve’s face.

He actually stopped the bus and got off and chased after Mike, but Mike was a nimble 5th grader and Steve was a large heavyset man. We all laughed our asses off. Years later I ran into Steve in a restaurant and asked him about that incident, and he remembered it!

Tell us how the bus smells in a couple of weeks.

Good Luck and Way to Go.

You might be able to make a difference.

I remember 1 schools bus driver- Mr. Nunziato. An older Italian guy. He put up with a lot of shit from us but in the end we were good friends and had a good time.

Have fun!

I have been driving school bus 9 years. 7 of them as a open route driver. My school district trains new drivers for a route.

You have to be a driver for 2 years before you can become a sub/open route driver.

I love it, but sometimes you will wonder what the hell you are doing it for.

We always joke about writing a book about all the crazy stuff. You won't believe what goes on.

Remember, YOU are the first person they see, and the last person they see in their daily life in education. They could be having a hard/bad morning/or school day and you might be the only person who can brighten their day.



So, good luck! Enjoy the ride.

ARman

Get some of this. I am not kidding.

https://www.amazon.com/SMELLEZ...BL6/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?

When one kid gets sick it is a chain reaction.

I drove a bus part time when I was in college. In those days it was a 3-speed manual transmission. It was a great part-time job because I could drive early and then go to class and then drive in the afternoon. It worked out for me.
Good luck!

Awesome! I’m looking forward to daily updates.

Back in the early 1960"s our bus driver was Mr. Roe....Mean old and cantankerous(?) but we still loved him... By walking home from school could beat the busby about 5 minutes. ......................... drill sgt.

They don't pay enough for me to put up with a group of heathens . My wife is a substitute teacher and the stories that she comes home with are something else ..

Cousin asked me to do this as they are desperate.

I told him I'd be in jail and the school system would be in court before I got my first paycheck

The district here now has 6’ tall and 20’ long signs not only at the bus depot, but at the schools as well.

I look forward to your updates, but for your sanity, may the bad ones be few and far between.

Good on ya sir! I’ve been asked multiple time to drive when I retire in a year or 2. I’ve had my CDL for 40 years. The district I’m in is very small so I am seriously considering it. I never realized there was such a shortage of drivers until talking to multiple people. I look forward to your updates, thanks for sharing!

They're begging for people to do it here, too. My hat is off to you, OP...it's a tough job but it sounds like you are striving to do it well.

Now that I'm on dayshift I work the crosswalk in front of the local elementary school every morning that I'm not tied up on a call. It's been fun to get to know some of the kids who walk on a consistent basis, and it keeps people from disregarding the crossing guard. I've had a few still blow the stop sign, and I've written a few more for disregarding the stop arm of the school bus that drops the middle school kids off there in the afternoon. Our prosecutor's office is pretty lenient on many things, but they have no tolerance for passing a school bus.

I see you're ex-LE. I taught school bus accident investigation for police officers for a number of years. I did a lot of research preparing for the class - photographing images in mirrors, location of controls, and digging through statistics. The rate of PI and/or fatal accidents involving bus occupants is extremely low HOWEVER: The most common school bus fatality is a 5 to 7 year old male child run over by the left front wheel of the bus.

While the warm fuzzies are great, watch them like a hawk when they get off the bus. The Transportation Supervisor offered me a job as a driver. I told him I'd rather get shot at.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
...
and I've written a few more for disregarding the stop arm of the school bus that drops the middle school kids off there in the afternoon. Our prosecutor's office is pretty lenient on many things, but they have no tolerance for passing a school bus.

Not here, the prosecutor's here don't do jack about that.

I was doing a pre-school route once and the little boy was getting on the bus, my attendant and the boys dad were holding his hand as he climbed the bus steps.

A neighbor backed out of her driveway and comes rolling down the street, when I realized she wasn't going to stop I layed on the horn, and put my hand up in the common "STOP" gesture. She kept on going and drove right passed the bus.

The boys father was pissed, told me her name.

I wrote the report, I had make, model, color, tag number, her home address and her name, along with the kids father statement that he would also testify and the county did Jack shit about it.

A few months later a difference bus driver had the same guy on a moped run his stop sign twice in a week. The next week he ran a stop sign at the corner and hit my bus going through the intersection at 45+ MPH.



Maybe if the prosecutor did something, that jackass wouldn't have done that. It was a tough life lesson for him, he almost died.



ARman

quote:

Not here, the prosecutor's here don't do jack about that.

Honestly, that would probably be the case here as well, but a few years back there was a horrible incident one county over where a lady blew the stop arm on a dark morning and killed a whole group of kids crossing the street to get on the bus. That's still strong in the local memory, so there's a lot of public pressure to enforce it around here.

Good luck. Our son is experiencing the school bus for the first time this year. A neighborhood kid has likely unmedicated ADHD and now Tourette's and was giving everyone the finger and yelling profanities at everyone. They got assigned seats last week, the kids that behave like our son gets shoved in 3 deep to seats to make room for the little shits to be spread out.

I hated the school bus as a kid but it builds character, life will be full of shitheads and morons and you will have to deal with it. We had a Grade A bully on our bus, he got on from an apartment or trailer court, I'm sure his dad beat him or his mom didn't love him or something. He ended up killing someone 10 or so years later, did time, got out and overdosed. Well....bye Felicia.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

quote:

Not here, the prosecutor's here don't do jack about that.

Honestly, that would probably be the case here as well, but a few years back there was a horrible incident one county over where a lady blew the stop arm on a dark morning and killed a whole group of kids crossing the street to get on the bus. That's still strong in the local memory, so there's a lot of public pressure to enforce it around here.

Iowa has "Kadyen's law" that started in 2012 after a 7yr old got killed by someone failing to stop.

Iowa DOT Kadyn's Law

Police, bus driver's and prosecutor's worked those cases hot and heavy for a couple years afterwards. Some buses had videos, the bus driver wrote down the plate and gave it to law enforcement and the officer went to the person's house and they usually admitted to it and were given a ticket and then called me for representation. Some were blatant, others were pretty iffy, like a bus driver stopped on the side of the road, waiting for kids with hazards on and then throwing out the red stop sign and lights when a car went to pass. I had prosecutors telling me school buses are "automated" that the driver would hit the switch for yellow lights, then when he stopped it automatically went to red lights and the sign came out and the door opened. Yet I would see buses coming down the street in front of our house go from driving to brakes and then red lights and sign, no yellow. A school bus driver in a small community where my office was had to have an undercover investigation and it was determined he was pulling that crap and entrapping other drivers.

I think the fervor over the law has died down recently and prosecutors and police have moved on to whatever currently has the most grant support.

From the research linked above regarding Kadyn's Law:

"School buses provide school-aged children with one of the safest forms of transportation available (Yang et al. 2009). The Transportation Research Board (TRB) conducted a study to assess the relative risks of school travel. The authors examined nine years of motor vehicle crashes nationally for school-aged children during normal school hours and found that only 2 percent of fatalities occurred on school buses (NRC 2002). The majority of fatalities occur in private passenger vehicles or as pedestrians or bicyclists. The next largest category of fatalities and injuries involve students walking or biking.

More recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported 1,386 school transportation-related fatalities between 2000 and 2009. Of those fatalities, 107 were occupants of the bus, 238 were struck by either the bus or another vehicle, and the remaining 1,041 were occupants of other vehicles (NHTSA 2011).

With such relatively low rates of fatality in comparison with other travel modes, parents should be encouraged to have their children ride the bus to and from school. Yet, despite being one of the safest modes of transportation, school bus injury is still a concern, as many children are hit either by the bus itself or by other motor vehicles when loading and unloading the bus. The TRB found that 50 percent of children killed annually in school related crashes are struck by the bus while pedestrians and 25 percent are struck as pedestrians by other vehicles, many of which pass the school bus illegally while it is loading or unloading (NRC 2002)."