HEADLINES Disabilities Conference Confronts Bullying Issue By Ryan Gray


grade when busing came to where I grew up in North Carolina as a way of integrating schools,” he recalls. “I spent a lot of my childhood on a school bus, usually an hour each way, and quite honestly that was often a very unpleasant experience where I got bullied and had a very difficult time.” Jennings didn’t have a bus driver who intervened or reported


Attendees at the 2010 disabilities conference listen during a session. This year they have a host of new opportunities to improve transportation service for students including obtaining much-needed information on bullying.


When Roseann Schwaderer attended the NAPT Summit last


November, she was captivated by one speaker in particular who drove home the importance of combating the age-old problem of bullying: Kevin Jennings, the assistant deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and the director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. “I thought he connected with our community so well,” says


Schwaderer, owner of Edupro Group and the organizer of the up- coming Transporting Students with Disabilities and Preschoolers 20th National Conference and Exhibition. “Te points he made about the types of individuals who are bullied, and obviously kids with disabilities are among the highest population. I thought, ‘Wow, he’s perfect to come [to Kansas City].’” Kansas City is known as the “BBQ Capital of the World,” the “Jazz


Capital of the World” and “Paris of the Plains.” Next month, it will also be the center point of training for special education transporta- tion, and Jennings will share with the industry more information on a new school bus driver training that is being developed to address bullying, which can especially impact students with disabilities. It’s apropos as the conference theme this year is “Show Me!” “What we’re talking about is doing some training for drivers


about how they can model behavior effectively on the bus and interrupt troubling behavior like bullying and any troubling be- havior,” he says. “Te idea is we would develop training free of charge for any district that is interested in training its drivers.” Albeit that the training has yet to take shape, requiring more work


between the feds and the industry, Jennings brings a sense of urgen- cy to addressing student bullying especially on board the school bus. Mike Martin, NAPT’s executive director, called Jennings’ willingness to work with the school bus community “historic” in Portland, Ore., last fall. Jennings, instead, prefers to think of his involvement as a necessary response to a challenge that has been with him his entire life. As a child in rural North Carolina, he rode the school bus every day, and his memories are not good ones. “My interest in this issue began back when I was in the second


20 School Transportation News Magazine February 2011


the ongoing harassment that resulted from other children notic- ing that Jennings was “different.” Tat difference was that Jennings is gay. He rebounded from his experiences to obtain degrees from Harvard, Columbia University’s Teacher College and the Stern School of Business at New York University. He also founded the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers Education Network in 1990, now known as the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network that seeks to end discrimination, harassment and bul- lying based on sexual orientation or gender identity. He has also written six books on gay rights and education. His focus returned to the school bus shortly after being ap-


pointed to his current post when in September 2009 the much-publicized, on-board bus bullying case originated out of Belleville, Ill. Ten, last spring, school bus industry representa- tives secured a meeting with Jennings in Washington, D.C. “It was great because [school bus bullying] was something I


cared very much about,” he says of the meeting that coincided with the annual NSTA spring meeting and “Capitol Hill fly-in.” Te result was an NAPT webinar on school bus bullying in May


featuring Jennings and his keynote and participation on a bully- ing panel at the NAPT Summit. Te momentum continues. In addition to the upcoming bus driver training, U.S. Department of Education Safe and Supportive School Grants funds are available to help school districts address real challenges facing students, such as bullying on the school bus. Eleven states received awards totalling more than $38 million in 2010, and Jennings says his office requested that Congress up that amount to $160 million in 2011. “Restaurants ask their customers what their service experi-


ence is like. I think we need to start asking people in schools, ‘Hey, what’s it like being here?’ Transportation has to be a part of that conversation.” “Te bus drivers are more aware of [bullying] than a lot of other


people in schools, and they’re very interested in being a part of the solution,” adds Edupro Group’s Schwaderer. “I think he’s genuinely interested in seeing school transportation be a part of the effort to try and come up with better solutions to bullying in schools.” Kathleen Furneaux, executive director of the Pupil Transpor-


tation Safety Institute and a conference advisor and presenter, is also passionate about school bus bullying. As a self-described “short and overweight” girl growing up, she was subjected to re- peated harassment by fellow students, often on the school bus. She said her school bus driver blamed her for the abuse and rec- ommended to her parents that she “not be so sensitive.” “As an adult things gets better, but back then it was relentless,”


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