Page 15 | No mask so school bus left my DD

onanislandfaraway · 2021-06-14T21:34:15+00:00

Both me and my DP was at work today so my 13yo DD has to be home alone for a couple of hours until DP gets home at 6pm. I texted her asking did she get home OK and she told me she'd lost her mask during a sports session at school and that the school bus wouldn't let her on so left her at school. She didn't want to hassle me or DP at work so rang her nan to pick her up and thank god she was able to and only lives a 15 minute drive away so wasn't waiting around too long. Her school is in the next town over to where we live so way too far for her to walk home. AIBU to think that the school bus is responsible for getting children home and should not have just left her at the school? Shouldn't they have spare masks just incase of instances like this? I will of course be making sure she has plenty of spare masks in her bag, to be honest she did use to carry a few spares but didn't happen to have any today. I am quite angry that they've done this.

MaryJosephJesusAndTheWeeDonkey · 16/06/2021 00:19

@Geamhradh

Lesson learned. She'll make sure she has a spare from now on. Not the bus driver's fault. Or the school's. Yours, and your daughter's.

100% agree

k1233 · 16/06/2021 02:57

I don't see where I blamed the bus driver for following the rules. I said if the bus has that policy - ie no mask, no transport - and is a school bus, then it would make sense for all buses like this to have spare masks available so children aren't left behind. I said to raise with the school. Perhaps that's where you think I'm blaming. I'm not. The issue to raise with the school is a child was denied after school transport due to no mask, can school buses carry spares so this doesn't happen again. It's not a drama, it's a solution to a valid issue. Nowhere is the bus driver blamed for following instructions.

quizqueen · 16/06/2021 03:17

It's always someone else's fault. It's always someone else's responsibility to provide things that others have forgotten.

AgentJohnson · 16/06/2021 04:56

She’s thirteen! She was resourceful and resolved the situation herself. The amount of kids after a year, still having one mask on them is ridiculous. I doubt she won’t forget to carry spares with her in future.

DD’s class stopped dishing out spares when they were getting through a box of 100 a week. Her gran lives a 15 minute away from school. Anyone would think this bus driver abandoned her in south central LA at midnight. He refused to let on an able bodied NT 13 year old in daylight.

Complain if it makes you feel better but where was your duty of care to your child by ensuring she had spare masks on her?

MichelleScarn · 16/06/2021 05:28

*@imforourfreedomback

Sleepyblueocean

Yes you are right. He should be so grateful.

Well to be frank he should be. So many people have lost their jobs so in actual fact he should be grateful*

imfor I'm not sure which of your posts is worst, this, or your one ending in simples sweetheart..
Do you/have you had a job where you have regulations to work to?

MissChanandlerBong90 · 16/06/2021 06:09

I think as a society we’ve lost all sense of reason if we’re fine with teenage girls being left behind by buses because they haven’t got face coverings.

Sure, she was at school, it was the middle of the day, it’s the middle of summer etc. But I find the principle appalling.

tttigress · 16/06/2021 06:14

This whole Covid situation is getting out of control now, some people love implementing these petty rules :(

Sockwomble · 16/06/2021 06:40

Or are just doing their job perhaps.

cherrybonbons · 16/06/2021 06:43

@Workingfromhomeishell

School was over. Did the driver inform the school and ensure she was taken safely in/ a teacher alerted? Are you then expecting a teacher to wait with her (still maskless) while parents travel in from two towns over? When the parents may not have been contactable if working? Let her cover her face with a jumper, sit more than 2m away from everyone and get her safely home. The kids are all mixing without masks at lunch etc anyway let's be realistic. Everyone is so covid and mask crazy and they seem to have lost all logic - that's what's embarrassing

THIS. Exactly this!!!!

imforourfreedomback · 16/06/2021 06:49

[quote MichelleScarn]*@imforourfreedomback

Sleepyblueocean

Yes you are right. He should be so grateful.

Well to be frank he should be. So many people have lost their jobs so in actual fact he should be grateful*

imfor I'm not sure which of your posts is worst, this, or your one ending in simples sweetheart..
Do you/have you had a job where you have regulations to work to?[/quote]
Oh of course. All the time

imforourfreedomback · 16/06/2021 06:49

@tttigress

This whole Covid situation is getting out of control now, some people love implementing these petty rules :(

This ☝️

Sockwomble · 16/06/2021 06:52

"Let her cover her face with a jumper, sit more than 2m away from everyone and get her safely home"

2m away from everyone on a school bus? Have you been on one recently?

Putting jumpers over faces may also not be accepted (by those who make the rules about it) because of the number of teenagers who will try to pull their clothing over their heads and say they have a mask on. I think there is a lack of understanding here of what goes on and is 'tried on' on school buses.

Billandben444 · 16/06/2021 07:19

Wow let's start with insults then shall we?
I'm sure there are plenty of people out there wanting a job ( after losing their job due to Covid). So if he doesn't like it find something else. Simples sweetheart

Who say he doesn't like his job? He's doing what he's been instructed to - no mask, no bus. How many parents would be baying for blood on MN if he HAD let her on without one? (by the way, 'simples' went out of fashion a while back, sweetheart, and dates you)

And to the rest of you who can't be bothered to read all the OP's posts, for the 50th time - she was not left at a bus stop all alone in the middle of a big dark forest - she was left ON THE SCHOOL PREMISES.

MissChanandlerBong90 · 16/06/2021 07:33

And to the rest of you who can't be bothered to read all the OP's posts, for the 50th time - she was not left at a bus stop all alone in the middle of a big dark forest - she was left ON THE SCHOOL PREMISES.

So we do accept it wouldn’t be ok to leave a teenage girl alone at a bus stop in the middle of a big dark forest for not having a mask?

Iggly · 16/06/2021 07:41

@MissChanandlerBong90

And to the rest of you who can't be bothered to read all the OP's posts, for the 50th time - she was not left at a bus stop all alone in the middle of a big dark forest - she was left ON THE SCHOOL PREMISES.

So we do accept it wouldn’t be ok to leave a teenage girl alone at a bus stop in the middle of a big dark forest for not having a mask?

That’s not relevant. Because that is not what happened.

And that’s exactly the issue I have with the OP. She’s conflating and creating this big drama out of something that wasn’t.

Kid forgot mask. Wasn’t allowed on bus. Kid phones Nan. Gets home safely.

DumplingsAndStew · 16/06/2021 07:41

The Covid deniers are out in force aren't they? If it wasn't mask-related, I doubt some posters would have such strong feelings on this.

Imagine she just didn't have her bus pass. Imagine the rules are very strict, no pass no service.
I do not believe that a child would not know to go back into school.

It's more than likely the driver would say to a child if they didn't have any other type of face covering, to quickly go and get a mask from school, then the child decided it was fine, they'd get a lift instead.

All this hand wringing about 13 year old being unsupervised on school grounds. Some of your heads would spin if you saw what your kids get up to when you're not watching.

MissChanandlerBong90 · 16/06/2021 07:50

That’s not relevant. Because that is not what happened.

And that’s exactly the issue I have with the OP. She’s conflating and creating this big drama out of something that wasn’t.

Kid forgot mask. Wasn’t allowed on bus. Kid phones Nan. Gets home safely.

Sure. In this situation it was absolutely fine. But there’s a principle behind it and that’s what I’m uncomfortable with. Is it ok to refuse a teenage girl access to a bus for not having a mask, or is it fine? IOr is it only ok where she’s being left on school premises in the middle of summer? Does the bus driver have to do a quick risk assessment and decide whether he thinks it’s safe or unsafe to leave her? And what happens if he happens to be wrong? Isn’t that a huge responsibility to place on someone?

Also, I may have misunderstood but I thought that bus drivers/retail assistants etc were not required to enforce the mask wearing rules. There was a lot of discussion about this last year.

Iggly · 16/06/2021 07:59

@MissChanandlerBong90

That’s not relevant. Because that is not what happened.

And that’s exactly the issue I have with the OP. She’s conflating and creating this big drama out of something that wasn’t.

Kid forgot mask. Wasn’t allowed on bus. Kid phones Nan. Gets home safely.

Sure. In this situation it was absolutely fine. But there’s a principle behind it and that’s what I’m uncomfortable with. Is it ok to refuse a teenage girl access to a bus for not having a mask, or is it fine? IOr is it only ok where she’s being left on school premises in the middle of summer? Does the bus driver have to do a quick risk assessment and decide whether he thinks it’s safe or unsafe to leave her? And what happens if he happens to be wrong? Isn’t that a huge responsibility to place on someone?

Also, I may have misunderstood but I thought that bus drivers/retail assistants etc were not required to enforce the mask wearing rules. There was a lot of discussion about this last year.

Yes it’s fine because the teenager was at school

Confusedandshaken · 16/06/2021 08:02

That poor driver was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.

If he let her on and she subsequently infected kids on the bus who then spread the virus though their homes and community he'd be vilified. If he leaves her behind he is in trouble.

He didn't leave her stranded in a dark alley in a dodgy area at midnight. He left her with a phone outside her school. If her nan hadn't been able to collect her I'm sure the school would have been able to keep her safe until a cab or parent was found.

She sounds like a sensible and resourceful girl who reacted well to this. I'm sure she won't be caught out without a mask again.

DumplingsAndStew · 16/06/2021 08:08

Can you imagine the uproar?

"Hey MN
So after all this fuss over face nappies, today the school bus driver let some lass on the bus without one, because she 'lost it'. They are sooooo important aren't they? You're all being taken for fools. When are you sheep gonna wake up?!"

ImmyMc · 16/06/2021 08:32

Some people on here are genuinely delusional. Bus drivers, even school ones, do not have a responsibility to look after your children. They are not hired by the school, but by a bus company, and they have rules to follow, i.e. the law about masks.

Also, this is what is wrong with parenting nowadays, this freaking out about a teenagers being by herself outside her school, in broad daylight. It is just not even an issue. She is more than old enough to either call someone (which she did) or just go back to the school office and ask them what to do. Schools do not shut at 3 pm! My goodness. This is such a non-issue that it's unbelievable.

In years past in the UK and in most other countries besides the UK and US, this would just be put down as a learning experience for the girl, i.e. remember to bring a mask next time or pack spares, as if I don't I won't be allowed on the bus. These are just normal human things that we need to do, like remember not to bring make-up over 100ml at the airport or they will take it off you and throw it away, or remember to wear a seatbelt because crashing without one means that you get hurt, or remember not to wear trainers at a nightclub because they won't let you in, or remember to bring your uniform to work because they will send you home if you try to work in your jeans.

This is so far from an issue that it's unbelievable. I agree with a previous poster that I can only think that a lot of people on here are just crazy anti-maskers because if they actually think that there's a problem with a thirteen year old not getting on a bus and being left outside on the school grounds during the day, there's something wrong with society and those children will learn nothing about how to be independent in life.

ImmyMc · 16/06/2021 08:34

In years past in the UK and nowadays in most other countries besides the UK and US...

NCwhatsmynameagain · 16/06/2021 09:04

I’m not an anti masker in the slightest, and I found this to be a big issue @ImmyMc OP’s daughter goes to school mikes from home hence the school bus, and sorry how many weeks is it since that pcso was murdered in broad daylight? I am very much in favour of children having independence and learning life skills but this has to be balanced against the very real threat that women a d girls face if they are alone in quiet areas.

NCwhatsmynameagain · 16/06/2021 09:07

Bus driver wouldn’t have known she could get a lift when he left her at school.

ImmyMc · 16/06/2021 09:10

@NCwhatsmynameagain It is still delusional to think that this is in any way the bus driver's responsibility. I am a teacher, and there is absolutely no way that bus drivers do or should take responsibility for the kids. Their job is to drive the bus. They are not trained in child protection, and they are not paid to do it either. Parents these days are, in my opinion, seriously losing the plot.