Now, in this day and age of social networking, we have been told to not add any of our students on our Facebook page. Of course, I am a bit of a push the envelope kind of girl, so I have a few of my high school students and their parents on my Facebook page.
Yet again, I have had this same route and have known these kids and parents for years. With that said I was on Facebook the other night, and I saw one of my high school boys status post. It was about 5 of the boys on my bus. It read: “We just shoved a piece of bread in our butts, and ran 30 yards. The loser had to eat the bread. haahhahaaa.”
TMI…gross! I had to ask my own son what the “Blue Mountain State” show was and he informed me that it is a show on which people do funny stuff, like what the boys on my bus did. So, the next morning, I stopped at the store before my route and picked them up a fresh loaf of bread. When I got to their stop I handed it to one them and said, “For the next time you get hungry for bread.” they all laughed and told me I was awesome! I thanked them for the great new material for my new blog!
The other day one of my grade school girls got on the bus and asked me, “Why do you have your pretty face on today?” Yes, I was wearing a little makeup that day, but I was unaware that I had my not so pretty face on most of the time.
There are only 24 more days left of school so this is what we call our busy season. It is where we have our regular routes, sport teams that we have to transport, plus teachers are all trying to get all of there field trips in before school ends. So, there is a lot of shuffling going on with what buses and routes people are driving. In fact, we have everyone in our district with a CDL driving right now. Therefore, on the road you don’t know who you will run into or who will be driving your route when you are gone.
For example, I was out recently because my husband had to have surgery on his shoulder. A co-worker of mine drove my route, and he just so happened to turn on the radio so the kids could listen to music. Now, I know this because I had a bunch of students tell me when I got back, “The other driver played music. I thought you said the radio was broken?” Yep, I was busted!
A few years ago, I used to have the radio on all the time. Then the requests started for me to keep changing it to other stations and turn the volume up or down. Plus, the students would try to talk over the music, so it would then get really loud. I started just telling them that the radio was broken… problem solved. Well, now I am thanking my co-worker for throwing me under the bus! Just an FYI…That radio will be broken again on Monday.
Editor’s Note: The National School Transportation Specifications & Procedures outlines that a basic responsibility of school bus drivers is to minimize on-board noise, and that total silence be required at all railroad crossings. Furthermore, the guidelines state that school districts give “consideration” to the use of AM/FM radios and other music players on the bus. Separately, as highlighted in a September 2011 article in School Transportation News magazine, school districts are encouraged to implement a policy on the use of social networking sites by school employees.
Christe Smith is a school bus driver for the Olympia School District in Olympia, Wash. She has been enjoying driving a bus for the past 10 years and has experienced many events that she has decided to share with the rest of the STN readers. You may also view her blog at Life as a School Bus Driver.
