So I think I started a mini-revolution at school...

To make things simple, I’ll post the story that was written by our local radio station regarding the incident:

“A Gimli-area parent is speaking out about problems on a local school bus – problems that resulted in a bus driver returning a bus load of kids to school Thursday afternoon and refusing to drive them home. The parent, who asked not to be identified, spoke to CJ107 yesterday afternoon after the incident and said parents were forced to drive to the school to get their kids. The parent told us problems on the bus have been ongoing for about a month now and accused the driver of unsafe driving. Students allege the driver has slammed on the brakes, pulled over and yelled on numerous occasions and escalated yesterday after the parent said several students argued back. No one from the Evergreen School Division was available for comment on the situation late Thursday.”

So, in reality, the driver turned around because a student grew the courage to talk back and curse at him. Upon arriving at the school, our bus was boarded by the assistant principal and the Director of Operations for the division. They both reprimanded us high schoolers in particular, and didn’t even acknowledge the fact that he had slammed on the brakes while doing 90 k down the highway, yelled at and pushed a kindergartener into her seat, and other things.

It was apparent we weren’t going anywhere, and when I saw that I was supposed to have been home five minutes prior, I basically lost it. I stood up and houted something along the lines of:

YOU KNOW WHAT? THIS IS BULL****! THIS IS ******* RIDICULOUS! **** YOU GUYS; I’M GETTING OFF THIS GOD**** BUS!

And with that stupid yet powerful statement, I marched off the bus and called my mom to come pick me up. There were students cheering and clapping for me, and some students even followed suit and left the bus.

And you know what the real kicker is? When they drove by my house (a full hour late), the bus driver gave the middle finger to my neighbour and I! (naturally, we both returned the gesture.)

Today, there was a meeting, and apparently there is a temporary substitute for our route. Now, it is up to the Operations department to decide the fate of the bus driver.

I wasn’t there, so there’s only so much I could really say in reply to this. However, based on the information you provided, and from the experiences I had throughout my schooling, it seems as though the students on said bus are acting out and when reprimanded, turning into belligerent little turds. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Bus drivers have very tough jobs. They’re trying to safely drive a large motor vehicle full of children down roadways while at the same time trying to keep the children safe in their seats and prevent them from raising hell. HS age students are probably the absolute worst when it comes to behavior, making this bus driver’s job even harder. I remember during my years in school feeling bad for my bus drivers for all the BS they had to put up with.

Acting like a bunch of uncivilized circus freaks and THEN mouthing off at the bus driver when he or she is trying to maintain order is not heroic as you are trying to present it as being, in fact, all involved should get double the punishment for it.

My God. Kids, especially teens have such a twisted view on fairness. They act like D-bags and then lash out when they are forced to face the consequences and perceive it as some sort of major victory.

I’ll tell you, if I had a child that behaved in such a way, I’d assure them that the punishment at home would be twice what they got at school. And God forbid they flipped the driver the bird after acting like that, I’d break their middle digit right off and stick it where the sun don’t shine.

I know from experience that a dramatic rebellion like that doesn’t always go over so well as it does in the movies. It sounds like there’s a valid case against the bus driver’s behavior, but the students’ word would hold a lot more weight if these concerns were brought to the attention of the school after everyone left the bus and went home that day. In the heat of the moment, the school authorities will always take the bus driver’s word first, and any uprising that happens on the bus is just adding to his case.

I agree with Firefly mostly, although I think I have a more forgiving view on high school BS. I was just having a discussion today with someone about how much of high school is all about learning to screw the system, yet making it appear like you sucked up to it. It’s an awful and oppressive time for a lot of people, and some only know how to express it by acting out. If there are conditions you can’t tolerate, be as rule-abiding as possible and go through the appropriate channels (as in a parent), but also try to circumvent the situation such as getting a sympathetic teacher on your side or contacting a local newspaper. These kind of actions have the potential to speak louder than F-words.

I remember we had something like this happen a couple times on my bus route when I attended high school. Except that it was because most of the students were just douches. It never went as far as going back to the school, most of the time, they would just sit at the school, and have the principal/VPs come to the bus, or pull over on the road if we were already driving. I agree with Firefly as well, bus drivers have a tough job, and I really felt bad for most of them who drove my high schools routes, because teenage kids are just lacking any control. I remember times were people would throw stuff out of the windows, at other buses (we once had a yogurt fly through our bus window from another bus), People standing up, yelling, etc.

Do they have cameras on your buses there? I know that here, they decided to install security cameras on the buses, so if something like this ever happened, they have the footage to see what really happened. Plus, we also have undercover cars, that will follow the buses every so often, to make sure the bus driver is doing their jobs right/everything is going the way it should be.

You all prove valid points. I wrote a letter to the Vice Principal regarding the incident the night after. I believe that the incident was 50/50; 50% the student’s fault, and 50% the driver’s fault. We had a meeting regarding this issue on Friday, and unfortunately, 75% of the students feel as though they have done absolutely nothing wrong. The students should know their expectations on the bus, and on some occasions, they did stand up, throw crap out the window, etc. If the students were smart, they would recognize the bus driver was a dictator, and gathered evidence about the bus driver’s unsafe driving habits, and presented that to the Director of Operations.

On the other hand, the bus driver also had some responsibilities to fulfill. Of course, safety IS one of them, but so is getting the students home on time. I have nothing wrong with the driver being strict; in fact, I encourage it. However, he should’ve known that high school kids can be jerks, and that by turning around, he would be causing more problems than he would be solving.

On Friday, many kids came up to me at school, supporting me. My parents have told me that they support my decision to stand up for my rights as an individual, but at the same time, I could’ve done it without shouting and cursing. I do have anger management issues. I don’t get angry very often, but when I do, I’m like a bull seeing red.

I handled it better than my mom; she said she will offer to drive me to and from school until the driver is fired. I don’t mind if he continues driving, but he needs to find safer ways to deal with misbehaviour. For example, he could’ve just drove the kids home and reprimanded them the following morning.

Oh, and about the middle finger: The driver gave US the finger first; we simply returned the favour.

At least you returned such a nice gesture…

It sounds like you are looking at this more responsibly than you did in your first post, however, it seems as though you’re view is still a little twisted. Not entirely you’re fault, you’re still young, I get it.

I’m not completely excusing the bus driver, he could have acted in a more professional manor, but try putting yourself in that situation. Its not always easy or even possible to maintain a professional and calm stance when you are put in charge of keeping a bunch of out-of-control kids safe. I was in high school once, I’ve seen it all. There’s no fooling me. I know exactly how kids that age act and how they treat bus drivers and teachers alike. Taking an attitude of “well, he should have known we were bad-asses and should have kept driving” is the WRONG attitude to take, PERIOD. Its more like, if you punks wanted to get home on time, you would have all shut the f*** up and sat down and behaved yourselves. Really, its quite simple. You want the bus driver to provide YOU a service and drive you home? Respect him or her and don’t give them any reason to drive you back to your administrator. 'Cause the thing is, if kids want to act like little a-holes, my idea is, they can always walk home. It was good enough for our parents when they went to school.

Bottom line is, your bus driver is doing you a favor and put up with a lot of crap for it. So the way I see it, if you students had just behaved yourselves, and acted like civilized human beings, there would have been no reason for your bus driver to act like a “dictator”.

Another bit of advice I would give is that when you are in the wrong, the best course of action would be to apologize and try to mend the situation. By lashing out, giving the finger back, swearing at the driver, etc. you just make yourselves look bad. Its tough to convince your principal or the bus company that the driver was over-reacting when all you do is act in a way to reinforce the bus driver’s argument against the students.

After reading Firefly’s post, an image suddenly came to mind…

Anyways, I don’t understand how you even fought back against the bus driver. When/if my bus driver yells at someone for a legitimate safety reason, EVERYONE shuts up and listens. It’s always an awkward situation when the bus driver gets really mad, so everyone listens. I don’t understand how you people even responded to the bus driver, because you were probably in the wrong. In fact, I don’t recall the OP stating what you people were doing to make the bus driver upset! It’s just a one-sided story.

Now of course the parent who reported the whole thing didn’t reveal his/her name, thus turning it into an US against HIM situation. Classic!

(On an unrelated note, our new C2s are terrible, people. We want our ICs back!)