coach driver had to swear at and threaten school children to make them put seat belts on

Which is what you have to do...

He perhaps went over the top but to put myself in his shoes; he is driving a bus and responsible for the safe journey of multiple children. If there was an accident, those not wearing seat belts could've been seriously injured or worse. That's hardly fair to him to put that worry on him. I know how stressed I got when I realised mid drive, that my niece had learned how to unclip her seatbelt while we were on the motorway. The panic I felt as I couldn't see a safe place to pull over at the moment in time.

These kids sound like a bunch of disrespectful little shits and if I found out that my child had been carrying on like this on the bus, there would be hell to pay.

Can you imagine the stress of driving a 50+ seater coach with utter mayhem going on behind you?

What if he'd crashed?

Doesn't bear thinking about

Bus/Coach drivers who drive kids should be paid double

Let's face it, he didn't go bawling his head off to those kids without provocation did he. I mean, why would he do that for no reason?

I really want that bus/coach driver to give his side of the story. We'll probably never hear it but I'd bet my house he'd tolerated hours of the kids flouting the rules of not smoking/sit down/buckle up and just snapped.

Did he approach the teachers (any 1 of the 7 of them?!) to say 'get these kids in line please'? He has safety protocols to follow and as other PPs have said, if there had been an accident and just 1 kid ended up in hospital or worse, dead as a result, the driver would have been bloody lynched by the parents. Yes, he did go a bit OTT but he just couldn't win in that situation.

I'd love to hear his side and his opinion of the seemingly useless teachers.

Well the driver spotted it and pulled the coach over. He also smelled the cigarette smoke.

That's when the teachers should have started doing their job, instead of leaving it to him.

His language was completely inappropriate, but I do wonder what hapenned before this.
From the article it sounds like he pulled over part of the way through the journey, so we don't know what he had tried and what had hapenned before then. I'm guessing there were lots of 'please put your seatbelts on' being ignored. That doesn't in any way excuse him threatening to hit children, that's an absolute no. But I'm guessing if he had to pull over, that the teachers were not doing anything about it. I would be looking at their behaviour too. The driver is responsible for driving them safely, not for behaviour management, but if they are acting stupid, then it's distracting for him and potentially unsafe so he had to do something, but he definitely went too far.

I have taken children aged 5-10 on coach trips and we make sure they all have seat belts on and stay in their seats, no food on the coach only water bottles allowed, and that they keep the noise to a reasonable level, that's our responsibility. Parents know any poor behaviour and they will not be coming on a trip again, but we have never had to do that as we make sure they are respectful, thank the driver etc.

Wrong.

It's the parents fault the kids are little shits, because they're responsible for raising them.

It's the teachers fault the behaviour on the coach escalated, because they were responsible for supervising them at the time.

If you're going to be a teacher and get paid to supervise children, you need to do it.

You can't sit back and do fuck all.

The teachers were responsible for the children and their abhorrent behaviour - not the bus driver.

The teachers were not ensuring the safety and comfort of all the yobs/students on that bus.

The 'teachers' had abandoned their duty of care.

@IMustDoMoreExercise I'm amazed that anyone wants to be a teacher any more, never mind go on school trips, which are often outside normal working hours for no extra pay!

He should not have used bad language but to be honest safety was his first concern and he did what he needed to do to get them to comply. If this was my child I would be humiliated that they could not behave and if the teachers can't control them they are not safe to be taking them on a trip.

If the teachers failed to carry out their duties correctly then absolutely there should be disciplinary action.

But for all we know, the kids put their seat belts on at the start of the journey and then undid them while moving. How the fuck are teachers supposed to deal with that unless they're walking up and down the moving coach non stop?

If that happened then I don't think that any teachers would ever go on a school trip again.

It is not the teachers' faults. It is the parents' faults.

I wonder how the teachers felt. The fact they didn’t intervene speaks volumes. Probably secretly enjoying it!

I think the seven teachers should be sacked - they weren't safeguarding the yobs/children in their 'care', in what was a very dangerous situation. Their commotion could have caused an accident.

How very entitled that the little darlings thought it was acceptable to litter the coach, light up their cigarettes and ignore the adults who were there to ensure the safety of everyone.

How dangerous that they thought they could randomly move around the moving vehicle and blatantly ignore safety rules.

It's a very sad state when your children are so intimidating that the teachers daren't intervene.

But what could the teachers do? They probably asked them to put their seat belts on and unless they watch every single child for the whole journey there is nothing they can do if the kids decide to take them off.

This.

They should have been insuring that the kids wear seatbelts and don’t smoke.

Yes, call me old fashioned but this was one of my basic requirements when I sent my kids on school trips.

It's hard to imagine what the teachers were actually doing.

I've not read the full thread, but why on earth were the seven teachers not ensuring the children were behaving correctly? Why was it down to the driver?

Yes exactly.

That is why so many kids are feral. They have never been disciplined like these kids were.

They got a taste of their own medicine as they know that no teacher can behave like the coach driver did so they act as if they are untouchable.

Serves them right.

Sorry but this is complete bollocks about knife crime.

It's just not reported anywhere near as much (like most crimes) because the police are mostly able to do fuck all about it, considering there's nowhere near as many of them.

There's never a day that goes by lately where I'm not reading in my local FB group that kids have been threatened with knives in the local park, and the police RARELY turn up or if they do, it's up to 8 hours after the report!

People just don't bother anymore unless they've actually been stabbed.

I'm not sure what area you live and work in, but it's not the same as mine, or even the same planet by the sound of it 🌍

I agree that he shouldn’t have threatened the kids. That part was out of order..

However - it won’t hurt for the diisrupters to hear a few home truths and to be told what’s what. Not enough kids get disciplined these days.

If anything happened to the kids on that coach in an accident, it would have been the drivers fault for not making sure they had their seatbelts on. His liability only.

Where were the teachers, who were supposed to be keeping an eye out? They should have been insuring that the kids wear seatbelts and don’t smoke.

of course he shouldn't have threatened to punch them

but the shouting and swearing at them I wouldn't have been bothered, they have a story now to tell and will love the drama of it all

and really what were the teachers doing

I bet the troublemakers LOVED the reaction that created.

Don't be ridiculous, of course an adult doesn't "have to" threaten and swear at children.

The kids should behave, of course, but it doesn't justify the adult, who should know better, behaving like this.