The Bus Driver
15 Years Experience
South, ..
Female, 37
I have been a bus driver since late 2006. I know the inside story, the scoop, the down low dirt of what it takes to be a bus driver, how to handle kids and adults, and how to survive on the "streets" so to speak. I used to have a blog, feel free to browse it or ask me a question here.
The blame falls on the school district in my opinion. Heat is not something you want to play around with especially around children. If you're hot, imagine the ones who can't speak up for themselves or the little ones who get overheated really quickly. That's why even if my supervisor says no to stopping at a store to get water for the child that is obviously in distress, I would still do so because that child is depending on me to help them and my first responsibility is to the children in my care on the bus. Case in point - I have a diabetic child on my bus. Even though she has not shown any signs of distress or problems managing her diabetes, I always keep a water bottle and some easily dissolved sugar on the bus just in case she has a crisis. Maybe you could keep some water bottles or something on the bus to help manage a situation like that before it gets to be a problem? Finally, if they try to blame you for the child's distress (as some parents will), your best course of action is to take the situation above your supervisor if your supervisor is unsupportive.
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I don't know if there is a law or not. Most, if not all, school buses come equipped with heaters. Not every bus has an air conditioner, but a heater is fairly standard. Occasionally, as with other mechanical items on a bus, the heater may break down. This is usually unexpected and not preventable. It makes for a very cold bus ride in the mornings during the winter months if a heater breaks. Most of the time its fixable or if it needs further service, the bus companies will often swap buses out for a fully functioning bus. Also, as I told the kids who got on my bus in short sleeves and shivering this morning while holding their jacket in their arms... a jacket works better when its ON!
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The pre-trip inspections vary from state to state and bus shop to bus shop, but overall, they aren't all that hard to follow. In my district, our pre-trip inspections are basically ensuring all the lights work, the horn works, the stop arm and the stop sign come out, emergency buzzers are active and working as well as the door functional. Any mechanical issue is usually discovered either in the fuel line or when the bus stops working for some reason. Since we don't fuel our own buses, the mechanics do it, they check the fluids and all under the hood for us.
As far as going to bed and waking up, that will depend on your individual route and district. For mine, I don't have a set bedtime or anything like that, but my route starts at 6:35 am every morning so I have to plan to be up and out the door by 6:10-6:15 every morning. I usually wake up at 5:45 ish (start to wake up/alarm goes off at 5:30), in the shower by 5:50, and out the door by 6:20. It only takes me a few minutes to drive to work, so I'm on the bus yard by 6:25 and on my bus and enroute by 6:30 to my first stop.
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I would check to see what your district policy is on electronics on school property. In my district, electronics such as cellphones or music players or the like are not allowed primarily in school or on school property which includes the school bus. As for me, I allow these things unless they start to cause a nuisance between the kids, in which case I usually will warn the child with the offending device and warn of the consequences (confiscation and a parental phone call) Most of the time the kids will tone it down and behave. Have you tried warning this child of the consequences for his behavior? Finally, you can get the back up of your supervisor in order to help manage this.
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That would depend on your local bus company. Different companies have different policies. In my district, as long as the children are school age, they are allowed to ride our buses. It also will depend on which schools you end up serving as to where your children can attend school within the district. Your best bet is to call the bus shop and speak to the supervisor on the bus shop's policy on the matter.
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It depends on the type of system, but most sound systems on a bus pick up surrounding noise, but the best noise happens about 4-6 feet surrounding the microphone.
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A school buses camera is usually only active when the bus is switched in the "on" position. The only exception to this is when a bus is switched off after a period of time. Our camera systems are designed to run for about 10-15 minutes after the bus is officially "off." This is so that it can be shown that we do our walk throughs to check the bus for any sleeping child and also prevents a bus driver from turning off the bus just to yell or swear at children off camera. If they have to wait 15 minutes the boss man knows something is up. As for any other security cameras that may be around the bus depots, I'm not sure, but some depots do have security cameras on the building and in the parking lot to ensure protection.
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