Bus Woes

I had to go in to see the Assistant Principal at Sarah and Emily's school this morning to complain about their bus driver. The girls came home from school yesterday complaining that they had not only been forced to sit four to a seat on the way home yesterday, but that there were some kids without seats standing in the aisle, too. They also told me that their bus driver talks on her cell phone almost non-stop while driving their bus route.

Since I had to take Sarah to the dentist to have a problem with her braces fixed this morning, I had her accompany me to the Assistant Principal's office when I made the complaint. I figured it would be best for her to be there since she was the one who was actually on the bus.

According to the Assistant Principal, Sarah and Emily's bus route is one of their larger route, therefore they have a larger bus than most routes. Yesterday afternoon, they had a substitute bus which was not as large and could not accommodate all of the kids who were on the route. However, according to the Assistant Principal, it is against policy for the students to sit more than three to a seat or to stand while the bus is moving. He said that the bus driver should have taken two trips, and that he would look into who it was that was driving that bus to have them reprimanded.

As for the regular bus driver constantly being on the cell phone, he was in total agreement with me that she should not be doing that. He said it was completely unsafe and that if the bus driver can't stay off of her cell phone for the 20 minutes it takes her to drive the bus route, then she has a real problem. As I was sitting there talking to him, he was composing an email to someone in the transportation department to have the bus driver talked to about her cell phone habits.

I also made sure to mention to the Assistant Principal that other than those two complaints, I have been very happy with the bus situation this year. My girls have made it to school on time every day, and have arrived home on time everyday, too. The Assistant Principal, as well as all of the staff I have had to deal with over the past two years there, have been just wonderfully helpful with any and every problem that has come up, and I am so happy to have my girls at a school with people like that. I think I'll have to write a letter or send a thank you card to them.

By the way, someone must have spoken to the bus driver today about her cell phone habits, because according to Sarah, the bus driver was not on the phone at all for the entire trip home from school. Yay!