School bus driver refused to drop my daughter home

No, Year 9

Would your daughter being dropped off at home caused even more delays to other pupils ( due to traffic congestion) ? If so, I can understand why he did this

At that age your daughter should easily have been able to walk 15 minutes home. Many younger kids walk further.

You hit a lot of time on your hands I see 🙄

He's employed to do a job and has a duty of care - failed / failed.
If he's employed by the school, speak the school and safeguarding staff.
If he's private hire contracted to do this, report this to the licencing authority (local council).
Also, ensure he's been vetted for transporting children and vulnerable users.

Can you explain why child safety wasn’t the priority here?

I'm not saying anything about this case. But the repeated blanket statement made that in every situation "child safety trumps all" is nonsense. Even your approach about child safety being the priority rather than the only consideration is more reasonable.

The driver should be on a disciplinary and possibly fired. This is a huge safeguarding incident and if school don’t respond appropriately I’d report them to ofsted and the inspector their school has.

What explanation makes the bus driver’s action acceptable here?

People who work in this area have said hours can be managed in certain circumstances

So what reason was there for the driver to drop children on a country lane miles from their stop?

Can you explain why child safety wasn’t the priority here?

We have no idea why he didn’t want to drive the 15mins required. Might be hours worked. Although that would still be the fault of the company not planning properly and him
for accepting the job.
it is a contract that needs to be fulfilled unless there would be a reason that affected the service as a whole. Weather/broken down etc. in which case a replacement is employed asap and the parents notified of delay or no bus service. To pick a child up and drop somewhere else is inexcusable.

Child safety trumps all.

Ok, you've said this about 15 times now and I've had enough, because it is simply not true. If child safety trumps all you'd never let your child outside. You would never let them into a car or play a sport. It would be mandatory for children to wear kneepads and a helmet when they walk on the footpath. Undoubtedly it would make them safer. But we don't, because it's not practical, or too expensive, or overkill, or bad for their development. Child safety does not trump all, there are always other considerations.

Autism is autism. "Mild" is something I'd use to refer to mustard. You will greatly irritate a number of people by referring to it as mild.

It's a Spectrum Disorder. This means there are a number of issues related to it that your DD may have. Each one will have an impact. It's often the case that it appearing "mild" is actually due to someone using all their energy to appear as "normal" as possible.

It's true that some have severe issues with things like Sensory Processing Disorder but I don't really think there's a light or mild version!

Also... People with ASD are varied just the same as people without. Some might have learning difficulties or be non-verbal or be super-intelligent but you don't need to have ASD to have these things.

Reminder - there are zero counter arguments.

There are not always two sides to a discussion.

In this case, the bus driver was completely in the wrong. And so is anybody attempting to defend him.

Child safety trumps all.

She's in year 9, so probably 13 years old. Still unacceptable.

Still no excuse. If the driver is that close to the end of his hours he shouldn't be taking on that journey, and if the company doesn't have another driver available then it's in breach of its contract.

But we can take sensible precautions, like paying for a bus to take a child to the stop nearest her home and expecting the driver to do what he's paid for.

The child is 9 years old. She might not even have had a phone. Unacceptable

Are you feeling OK? Whilst I agree with your point, you have literally either posted this link or quoted yourself saying pretty much the same thing, 10 times???

Are you trying to get noticed or are you constantly forgetting you have posted? Making the point once absolutely makes sense, saying the same thing in excess of 10 times just isn't necessary

I call BS on drive hours. If that was the issue he’d be contacting his company and having them send out another driver. Not ditching kids at random places and telling them to get themselves the rest of the way home.

He may have thought this was a good compromise - get parents to drive part way so can get back on time. And if you’d been able to do that I can see that working well. The problem was insisting and refusing to drop at the designated stop.

15min by car is likely 8km or more - that’s an unreasonable walk for anyone

Behave yourself. A school bus driver?! What about the bus drivers on public transport doing 8+ hour shifts?

He had another job on or pick up which was more important to him so he abandoned the child.

Our local independent school employs its drivers directly. They drive the schools own fleet of buses (both minibuses and coaches... they are quite distinctive hence why everyone knows!). The buses leave the school at 6.30am. The routes are for 4-18yos

Its not like the bus drivers for the state schools, who do normal routes in the day.

Hopefully the OP gets some answers from the school. The main one... what the driver would have done if she hadn't made it to the bus stop, or if the child (of any age) hadn't been able to confirm contact with an adult.

Yes, some do. But many don't, and run a range of services between school runs - particularly in rural areas. So a driver doing morning and afternoon school trips could be on the road from 0700 to 1800 ... with an hour for lunch, that's right at the limit for driving hours. An extra 15 minutes (each way) could leave them stranded. And a relief driver would not automatically be available.

There are too many unknown factors here for a full picture . Firstly, it is possible that the driver may have been close to or over driver hours. I have often started at 4 or 5 a.m., prior to a morning school run. Is this a service bus or a county council school contract service. How far from the company's base is this stop. School contracts do not always have to be on Tacho, but many, including myself, as protection in case of a what if situation. Yes, a PCV driver can drive up to ten hours a day, but not every day under both EU and domestic rules. We are still governed by EU drivers hours regulations. If I had been the driver in this situation, I would have still dropped off the child in question but woul gave liased with my boss for the gest way to deal with any possible issues with driver hours. I do have a lovely boss, though, and we drivers get a lot of autonomy.

It's appalling. I'd complain to the school and the company and I would be clear I wanted a response and explanation.

Tbh, I took it to mean she doesn't care that a child was slaughtered because a bus driver chose not to do his job, which is why I didn't bother engaging properly.

In fact, every person on this thread arguing the inarguable - I assume they don't care if children are murdered.

Unfortunately, in life there really are some appalling individuals who don't care if children are murdered.

Anyone arguing that this driver was not completely in the wrong is a walking red flag.

Exactly the opposite. I am pointing out that using this case (several times in this thread) isn't anywhere near a comparison to this situation. We cannot go through life with a totally 'what if' attitude. We would do nothing.