Perspective from a Bus Driver’s review view mirror

The following comments by a school bus driver were recently posted on social media. Although the driver chose to remain anonymous as to the location of their bus route and their personal identity, the content remains relevant to bus drivers in general. Therefore it is hoped that parents and grandparents who have children riding on school buses will take the driver’s comments into consideration.

As a school bus driver, I would like to explain something. My job is to transport your child from point A to point B safely, on time and ready to learn. That is all.

What do I mean when I say safely? Let me explain. Safely means I pre-trip my bus daily to ensure it is running properly and that it hasn’t been tampered with. Safely means my eyes are constantly scanning all 7 mirrors, blind spots, and the road in front of me. I’m not a babysitter. I’m not a mediator. I'm a Bus Driver.

I would absolutely love to be able to watch and hear each and every little thing that goes on in the 40 feet of school bus behind me, but while I’m watching Johnny jump across the seat, I just missed a car pull out in front of me. And oops, while I’m yelling at Susie to keep her hands to herself, the light changed and now I’m slamming the brakes to stop in time at the intersection. And what’s that? Now Joey has a nose bleed? And now someone dumped all of Katie’s stuff out of her book bag, and “bus driver, Bobby is flicking me”, and “bus driver, Lily said she doesn’t like me anymore”, and what’s that? While I'm looking in the mirror behind me reprimanding your perfect children, a car just ran my reds and Sally almost got run over!

It’s Never Ending to us ... And that doesn't even include the way the children speak to us. I'm pretty certain they don't speak to other school faculty like that. And certainly don't speak to their parents the way they speak to us.

So please, parents, tell me ... where do you want me to look? Behind me? In front of me?

Would you prefer I pull over each and every time someone yells “bus driver”? Because then you will complain that the bus is never on time, and trust me if I did pull over every time, we wouldn’t even make it out of the school parking lot before I'd have to stop. Incase you didn’t know, your children are not perfect...no one is.

Would you rather I continue down the road watching what’s going on behind me more than what’s going on with other vehicles on the road around me? Because I can assure you, if I’m not scanning every angle around the bus, there will be an accident, and then I will again be to blame, because I should’ve been paying attention to the road.

Now, on top of that, we see your children for less than 30 minutes a day, in most cases. Please teach your child to respect the bus driver, and to behave themselves when riding the bus … because we want to return them to you, safely.