Student hijinks aboard school buses are about as old as bullies at school playgrounds. These days, however, misbehavior on the road en route to school no longer is kid stuff.
It used to be spitballs, name-calling and the occasional fight. Now it's sex in the back seats, sexual abuse in any seats, and weapons carried on and bandied about by students. It's no wonder a quarter of the nation's school bus drivers quit each year.
Yet despite the use of video cameras and supposedly better methods to report incidents, problems continue aboard vehicles that carry 60 or more students. Hint: Cameras only record problems; they don't resolve them.
The apparent lack of authority on some school buses is inexcusable. At worst, it's a calamity waiting to happen.
An official with the National School Transportation Association tells the Trib that some districts back away from punishing troublemakers because misbehavior is hard to prove. In typical public school fashion, red flags are obscured by policies that sound good on paper but do little to resolve problematic behavior.
Want to get unruly kids to behave on the bus⢠Temporarily revoke their school bus privilege. Parents very quickly will get the message and relay it to their children -- in no uncertain terms.
It should be clear to children -- and certainly to teenagers -- what is and isn't appropriate behavior on school buses. That responsibility begins with parents -- not with the person who's supposed to be watching the road.
