Who is driving your children to school?

Bus drivers today are not the bus drivers of my youth. Gone are the Gym teacher and Johnny’s mom. Today, in most cases, a school bus driver is a professional driver. We are trained well and continuously. School bus drivers today are held to standards higher than that of a motor coach driver or an over the road trucker.

Let’s start with the medical exam I have to go through every year. Other professional drivers have a physical every two years. Along with this I must prove I am able to physically perform my duties in an emergency, by undergoing a dexterity test every two years. School bus drivers in my state attend refresher classes every year covering such things as emergency first aid, traffic laws and basic driving skills. This is above and beyond the monthly safety training my company provides.

Some people refer to us as part time workers who should not have all the privileges of full time workers. Please allow me to dispel that myth. By the time field trips and sporting events and after school activities are provided for, most of us put in over 40 hours a week. Not only that, but we do it in split shifts. I personally leave my house before six every morning to start my route at 6:15 AM and return home after 8:00 pm. I could come home between runs, but at over $3.00 a gallon for gas, that would not make economic sense.

What is a School bus driver’s job? In a nut shell it is to transport your children safely to and from school or school events. We also have to clean up after them when they leave trash on the bus. We referee when they can not get along and tend them if they get sick or hurt while under our care. All of this in a 40 foot long yellow box that other drivers just for some reason can not see.

To paraphrase a semi-famous comedian, “Can we talk about your kids?” Moms and Dads, do you really look at how your kids are dressing for school? I do not need to see how much “Suzy” grew up over the summer, if you get my drift. I do not need to see “Billy’s” new boxer shorts. However, if I notice any of this and speak to Mrs. Average mom, I am some kind of freak for looking at her daughter’s chest.  I am sorry Dad your angel is wearing those short shorts you forbade her to wear in public under her warm up pants and is taking off the warm ups in the back of the bus. Oh, and Dad while we are talking to you, please tell “Billy” it is not ok to put his hands on “Suzy” even if he thinks it is funny.

At any given time a school bus may contain as many as 70 children or more, depending on capacity. Do you have any idea what 70 children talking and laughing sounds like inside a metal box? If you hear me raise my voice while driving it is not because I am “yelling” at your kids, I am just trying to be heard. If you see a school bus pulled to the side of the road, chances are the driver just needs to talk to his students for a moment and will be back on the road soon. Every now and then he is tending a student that is sick or hurt. Do you really want to know the feeling of herding that big yellow bus and realizing that “Mary” is having a seizure 8 seats back? Please tell your children’s bus driver if your baby has a health problem they may have to deal with.

Now please do not think this is just a bitch fest. I love my job and get more satisfaction from it that any job I have ever had. When I speak of the students on my bus I refer to them as my babies.  My co-workers for the most part are the most dedicated bunch of professionals I have ever had the pleasure of working with.  When one of our babies moves away we miss them. When tragedy strikes and we lose one of our special babies, we weep openly and with out shame. When they grow up and go off to their own lives we are proud. You may hear us complain a bit about that “one kid that will not behave”, but don’t you dare talk bad about our babies.

So next time you hear about a school board meeting, go to it. When they speak of cutting the transportation budget and keeping the “bass fishing club” and the “war games club”, speak up. I did not make these up folks, these are real school sponsored clubs in the district I work in. You pay the bills, you have a say in how they spend your money.