School Transportation News Magazine | November 2009


[First Take] Does a Senseless Beating of


Student Morals Need Monitoring? By Ryan Gray Students in South Chicago are voicing fear over walking to school and even getting to the school


bus stop after a 16-year-old honor student was beaten over the head with a 2x4 and stomped to death during an alleged melee between rival gangs outside their high school. Te September fight was captured on cell phone video, and four teens were identified and charged with murder. One might argue that the school bus could have provided refuge for the victim, until one realizes


By Ryan Gray


that the victim was an innocent bystander merely trying to get to his school bus stop in the first place. And even when kids are able to board their bus, it can be far from the safe haven the industry likes to think it is, as current events have unfortunately shown. Sure, kids will be kids, and there have always been fights and unruly school bus passengers. And


maybe it’s a sign of the times, when seemingly everything is caught on video. But could is also be a sign that society is spinning out of control? Regardless of the causes, schools are increasingly being forced to deal with the aftermath. Look no further than the start to already an especially violent school year. Four Massachusetts teens were arrested in September for a school bus fight that allegedly start-


ed over someone throwing peanuts. An Indianapolis high school student was accused of assault- ing his school bus driver, who just disciplined him for playing music to loud via his head phones. Another driver in Santa Fe, N.M., alleged that a middle school student brandished a gun after the driver had broken up a fight. In an equally unsettling twist of fate, a school bus driver in Jacksonville, Fla., was accused of punching an insubordinate student in the face. Te list, unfortunately, goes on. Ten there was the incident in Belleville, Ill., when the school bus video captured the assault on a


high school student after he took a seat in a row where he was unwelcome. Apparently, the student wasn’t welcome anywhere else on the bus, either, as he can be seen trying to repeatedly sit down but is denied until it all comes to a head at the back of the bus. First Student later determined that the driver followed company policy by not intervening in


the resulting fight and instead radioing dispatch for assistance. But, as an eyewitness recounted in the local newspaper, it was common for the boy who was beaten to be picked on when attempt- ing to sit down on the bus. But on this day, the student had enough, forced his way onto the seat and tossed onto the floor the bookbag belonging to his seat mate. Te incident was simply a new, bloody wrinkle to an ongoing bullying problem. Te driver, who was suspended pending an investigation and was later reinstated but trans-


ferred to another school district, performed to “the letter” of First Student policy for dealing with onboard incidents. Certainly, no bus driver should become involved in a fracas for any number of reasons. But was it reasonable to expect such an incident might eventually happen in light of its ongoing nature? Was it a case of the driver hoping the issue would go away or resolve itself? Had the school administration been notified? Why was there no seating chart, which many safety and transportation experts say is the No. 1 solution for behavior problems. And should districts elect to use bus monitors on especially troublesome routes? Tose are just a few questions school administrators and transportation officials must ask them-


selves, as clearly there must be some sort of proactive response rather than burying their heads in the sand. And only they hold the answer, as they’ll be the ones who inevitably will find themselves dragged into court by enraged parents or forced into a big settlement. God forbid a student is killed onboard the bus during a fight. And no one, the least of which the taxpayers, benefits from that. But, it’s just as important to ask another question. Tese days, what constitutes a reasonable response? Forget for a second about budgets or that schools can barely afford to place attendants, aides


or monitors on IEP routes when required. If schools identify that these employees make safer the ride to school (and who’s to say they really do in light of truly out-of-control circumstances?) what expectations do school districts have of these employees? And what’s the relationship with the driver, the so-called “captain” of the bus? It’s an issue of schools doing all that is reasonable to ensure student safety, and it’s one school districts can’t afford not to address. n


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