A Student's behavior on the bus directly impacts the safety of all other students on the bus. To safely transport students, the bus driver must be able to concentrate on driving the bus without distractions from students who are misbehaving; therefore, unacceptable behavior by students will not be tolerated and will ultimately result in loss of bus riding privileges.
In addition, the quality of the ride and atmosphere inside the bus affects the student's ability to learn and his/her attitude for the whole day. Therefore, it is important that other, disruptive students, not be allowed to negatively impact a child's school day. Students who disrupt the bus will not be allowed to ride the bus.
Parents should also be aware that the inside of a bus is a confined space where children are sitting very close together, usually with several age groups mixed together. This creates an atmosphere where even minor behaviors can be annoying to other students and cause conflicts. Also, since so many children are together at the same time, peer pressure may cause a child to act out, when under other circumstances, the child may not. Because of these factors which are unique to the bus, a child may not exhibit the same behavior on the bus as he/she does in the classroom, at home, or in a less stressful environment.
Parents are requested to instruct their children in appropriate bus behavior and tolerance. Please help reinforce the authority of the bus driver as you would a teacher's authority in the classroom.
Drivers are trained to recognize and deal appropriately with misbehavior. They don't arbritarily choose a student to "pick on". If a child is continually getting in trouble on the bus, it is because of some behavior that is inappropriate or may be because of the other child with whom the child is seated.
Many times, the best way to keep a child out of trouble is to separate him/her from other children who are not making good decisions or are causing the child to act out. For these reasons, the bus driver's second step, after talking, is to reassign a seat. Parents, or the child can request a different seat to keep the student out of trouble.
Parents should also recognize that the driver's attention is divided between the traffic outside the bus and the children inside the bus. A driver can only monitor students through a mirror while maneuvering a large vehicle through heavy traffic or narrow roadways. Misbehavior, which distracts the driver's attention, could result in a catastrophe, while the same behavior in the classroom may result in only a slight disruption.Therefore, misbehavior and/or unsafe conduct cannot and will not be tolerated on the bus. Parents please keep these facts in mind when instructing your child in bus behavior or in dealing with unsafe contuct on the bus.
The same rules of conduct expected at school and the classroom shall apply for the student on the school bus.
Bus conduct procedures involving identified special needs students are determined individually on a case by case basis.
Please see the Student Handbook for a listing of discipline procedures followed when a student has received a Bus Conduct Report.