It's pretty common knowledge that every school bus, no matter the school system, has a range of preset rules we ask your children to follow while riding with us. For some reason most people honestly and to my surprise think that these rules were put into place simply to annoy you, your child or generally make your life a living nightmare. That isn't true.
Have you ever noticed those silly warning labels on electronics like blow dryers that say ridiculous things like don't blow dry your hair while in the shower or don't submerge your blow dryer in the bathtub when its full of water? Well they won't have put those warnings on your blow dryer unless some numb skull actually did it and then didn't like the reaction. On a side note, honestly why would you even think to blow dry your hair in the shower? Anyway, back on point..those bus rules that you think are so silly and pointless were actually discussed, rediscussed and then put onto paper because someone at sometime did something that created the need for said rule to be put in writing. Some child at some point did something to make that silly little rule necessary. And they are there to protect your child and your sanity, so heed them please.
In my county, we have 17 bus rules that we outline to the children in detail the first week of school, required to remind them of at least once a month and typically have to recite over and over again on each route everyday.
My favorite and the one I probably tell the children about the most is Bus Rule 1: Follow the directions of the driver. This isn't my favorite because I like to power trip, by any means. Its my favorite because it outlines the other 16 in a simplified way. I tell all my children that if they follow Rule number 1 they will have an enjoyable trip to and from school all year long because I will never require them to do outrageous things. I will never ask them to something I myself am not willing to do and I will never ask them to do something that would put their safety in jeopardy.
Bus Rule 2 is pretty self explanatory or so you would think, but I forever have children who refuse to follow this rule and parents who tell me on a daily basis that it is stupid and pointless. But let me explain to why we ask your child to be at the bus stop waiting, in line and not playing, at least 5 minutes prior to the bus's arrival. Its for his/her safety, plain and simple. The most dangerous thing in the world is a late student running for the bus. As trained professionals we are taught to look and look again for late students who don't follow bus rule 2 to eliminate potentially running over your child. I can't not tell you how many times, as a driver, I have had to slam on my brakes because one of your children have come running out between cars, from out of the bushes or out your front door and run straight out in front of a moving school bus. Its terrifying! We ask that the children are there 5 minutes early so that when we approach the stop we can clearly locate your child and make an immediate assessment that he/she is safe. Is that asking too much? And just for the record, I know it gets cold mid school year, but your child sitting inside your car is NOT at the bus stop, your child standing in your house looking out the window waiting for the bus is NOT at the bus stop, your child waiting in the carport is NOT at the bus stop. The bus stop is the bus stop and your child should be standing there when we arrive, ready to board the bus. Sorry.
Bus Rule 3 is obvious, be in line and don't play. Or so you think it would be. Why can't your child play at the bus stop? Its simple, because your child is in the roadway, with moving vehicles. And they are in the bushes and in other places that is not in view of the bus driver or other drivers approaching your child's stop. If your child can not be seen one of two things can happen, they can be hit by a vehicle or be snatched by a less than desirable person.
Bus Rule 4 states that children will cross the street in front of the bus and wait for the driver to signal them before doing so. Why? Again this should be obvious to the general public, but for some reason it is not. It's a bus. We, the drivers, have a limited view of the outside world around the bus and the first 10 feet all the way around the school bus is an extremely dangerous place for anyone but up to 40 feet behind the bus is completely out of view to the driver. It is called "The Danger Zone" for a reason.
If we can't see your child, they could get hurt.
Rule 6,7,8, and 9 state that your child should use their assigned seat at all times, not eat, drink or smoke on the bus and not bring animals, glass, dangerous or over sized items on the bus. Why? We use assigned seats to locate your child in a hurry should there be an emergency, if they eat or drink on a moving bus they can choke, live animals can cause dangerous situations, glass can break and cause accidents and dangerous items can cause health issues with some students and obviously over sized items can become a fire hazard and block your child's path off the bus in the event of an emergency. Let me elaborate a little bit one of these points. Every year I do an exercise with my children on the bus to explain to them why eating and drinking on the bus is dangerous. In the bus lanes while we wait to unload we play a game. I tell everyone to raise their hand and keep it up. I then tell everyone at the count of three we are going to hold our breathe for as long as we can. I tell them, when you can't hold your breathe any longer, put your hand down and we do this for three minutes. By the end of about 1 minute everyone's hand is down, but we sit in silence for the whole three minutes. Then I ask the children 'do you know why we just did that?' No one ever knows why. I then explain to them, 'the three minutes we just sat here and held our breathe is the same amount of time it would take me (the driver) to pull the bus over, turn it off and get to you and start saving you if you were choking on something you ate or drank on the bus, how many of you can hold your breathe that long? Nobody can, now imagine if you had to because you couldn't breathe, how scary would that be?' It eliminates eating on my bus. We do this several times a year and it works with every group from elementary to high school because it gets my point across. If you child were choking it would take almost 3 minutes for me to secure my bus and go assist them and that's only after a period of time before another student alerts me that your child is no longer breathing. So eating on the bus is NOT safe.
Bus rule 11 tells us that the children should not stick anything out the bus windows. This includes their hands, heads and anything they are holding in their laps. Most parents get this. But some do not. Do you let your child ride down the freeway with his head out the window like a poodle? So why would it be okay on the school bus? We try to avoid hitting outside stationary objects like low hanging tree branches and such but sometimes its unavoidable. We ask that your child keep their body parts in the bus for their protection. We ask them not to throw objects out the window for the general public's protection.
Bus Rule 12 says that all children should remain silent at any and all railroad crossings. This is again for their protection. A railroad crossing is a very dangerous place. In a car accident the bus will always win, the car will always lose. Size is an factor. But in a train accident, the bus will always lose. We are trained extensively to look, listen and look again several times before we cross a railway. Its to make sure that everyone is safe. Silence is essential.
Bus Rules 10 and 13 state that your child should not shout, scream, curse, use profanity, respect others and stay seated at all times on the bus. This is just common sense and basic decency rules. The driver is driving the bus. Its moving down the road around other moving vehicles. The driver's attention needs to be on the roadway, not on the students. Seat hoppers are putting themselves in danger. Screamers and profanity users are distracting the driver. Both of these acts are putting everyone one the bus at risk.
Bus Rule 14 may just be specific to my area but we ask that any child that is going to use a different bus stop or ride another bus needs to have a written note from the school, verified by the staff that this change was required by the parent. This is for two reasons, to cover the driver legally and to ensure the safety of your child. If you are sending your child somewhere other than home, we know where they went and you know where they went should something out of the ordinary happen.
Bus Rule 15 asks that your child not vandalize the bus or leave trash on the bus..again for obvious reasons. Vandalism is expensive for you, the parent. A bus seat costs about $60 US to repair and it is not very nice to see a school bus covered in gang graffiti and other junk and trash is unsanitary. No one wants to put their child on a dirty school bus. And I can tell you from first hand experience, just like a dumpster trash attracts insects. Not cute.
Bus Rules 16 and 17 state that your child should not have electronic devices, mirrors, laser pointers, flash cameras and other reflective devices on the bus. Why? In an emergency, your child can receive instructions if they are preoccupied listening to their iPod, plus they tend to get stolen allot and regardless of what allot of parents think, the bus driver is NOT responsible for your child's $400 mp3 player getting taken or lost on the bus and we will not replace it, nor will your school district, so we recommend they stay at home. Also reflective devices, flashes and lasers can cause glare or distractions to the driver, which is never safe when driving down the roadway.
So at the end of the day we have all these rules in place to protect your child, not to annoy you. They are there because at some point in time the need to put them in place was presented to your school district. They were not something administrators just pulled out of the air. They are a necessity. They are there to make your driver's job easier, safer and more efficient and they are in place to ensure that your child gets to school and home everyday in one piece.
