Page 8 | To think bus drivers should manage the behaviour of teenagers on their bus?

Pedalpushers · 03/10/2021 10:21

When I used to get the bus to work, the local school kids made it miserable for everyone. They would clog up the whole bus in order to go 2-3 stops that could have been walked in 10 minutes, commuters couldn't get on, I saw a toddler crushed behind a door when a swarm of teenagers blocked his mother from him, the sound of his screams haunted me for weeks. Then the pandemic hit and the behaviour of maskless teens shouting and barging around when people were trying to socially distance just cemented my opinion.

WhenISnappedAndFarted · 03/10/2021 10:24

@PreparationPreparationPrep

Lots of people saying bus drivers are paid very little. As If they are on minimum wage. I know a couple of London bus drivers and they are on about 36K. Not sure about outside London.

I know a driver in the north who is on 32k

WalkingOnTheCracks · 03/10/2021 10:29

@Dreamstate

Oh well this is a glimpsw of what your child will be like, get used to it! And before you say they won't be im sure the parents of all those kids say the same.

Ah, you think all kids act like that.

So when you were a kid, you acted like that.

Which may be why you think all kids act like that.

Dreamstate · 03/10/2021 10:45

No I walked home from school never took the bus.

End of the day parents of those children who behave like that all deny their child is like that cos they raised them up properly but yet they do. Just like when they turn into adults and still litter beaches and other beauty spots but hey they were raised properly right........

Floogal · 03/10/2021 10:52

Used to bug me when going to work they'd be smoking and playing music out their phones. And talking bollocks. To be fair it was usually college kids , school kids would just overcrowd the bus. Which was annoying as they usually had loads of school buses laid on for them

Emmelina · 03/10/2021 10:53

The driver isn’t responsible, and would likely get into trouble for intervening!
The school is the place to go.

Skysblue · 03/10/2021 11:04

:( this is why buses used to have conductors.

So sorry you had the experience OP. People were like this when I was a teen too.

The driver can’t do anything and if he regularly tried to police the behaviour he’d probably end up crashing.

Reporting to school might possibly help but they can’t do much unless they know names.

YourFinestPantaloons · 03/10/2021 11:07

Buses are horrific these days. But the driver is a driver, not a bouncer, and there is a genuine risk they'd be assaulted so why should they speak up really.

When people swore in front of my kids when they were toddlers I just saw it as a life lesson that sometimes people say naughty words but it's not what WE do. I don't think anyone should actually moderate their language just because kids are about

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 03/10/2021 11:18

@MissMaple82

Just a regular school bus by the sounds of it! Could just get a later or earlier bus. Problem solved.

But it ISN'T a school bus, it is a public bus. Why should the OP change her behaviour to enable these young people in being antisocial reprobates? 100% report. To the school and to the bus company, by email if possible. Give them a date by which you'd like them to reply with their intentions in sorting this out. Keep contacting the local paper in mind if you get nowhere.

BustopherPonsonbyJones · 03/10/2021 11:27

Okay, I’ll try again. If a group of young people who aren’t in school uniform or a drunk hen party/stag party, or rowdy football fans behave like this in a bus (and they do), who would you report it to then?

I’ve seen people call the transport police on trains. The police should deal with it in this situation too, especially as a real shock might stop the teens doing it again. It might hold up the bus journey for you but that’s the price you pay for being civic minded. Remember, it takes a village to raise a child.

Jojoanna · 03/10/2021 11:31

I sympathise OP , absolutely awful . The bus company do have a duty to ensure a safe journey without intimidation.

SugarHorse · 03/10/2021 11:48

@Dreamstate

Oh well this is a glimpsw of what your child will be like, get used to it! And before you say they won't be im sure the parents of all those kids say the same.

Utter nonsense!

This might be behaviour you'd accept from your child, but it's certainly not how all children will behave 🙄

Whammyyammy · 03/10/2021 11:49

I think the drivers job is to drive the bus. Its not his responsibility to sort out vile feral children

Macncheeseballs · 03/10/2021 11:53

Pantaloons, buses are not 'horrific these days', alot of the time they are a great way to travel

BakingOfTheFoodCats · 03/10/2021 11:54

Now buses are free for school kids in London everyone of them gets on even though they could walk in 5/10 mins, when I was in secondary you had to pay or it was free if over a certain distance , so now the buses are absolutely packed and most of them only go a few stops. Where I am the bus will stop to let them all on and they are only going one stop down the hill and the bus will wait 10 mins to get 30+ kids on 😡

Tumbleweed101 · 03/10/2021 11:59

My teens use a public bus to school and I think the behaviour of some of the children can be bad. They often get off complaining about how loud it has been. Sometimes the driver will stop the bus and tell them off. We do occasionally get generic reminders through for us to explain to our children how they should be behaving on the buses but I'm not sure if particularly badly behaved children are identified (their peers know their names though).

Slightly different where I am as although a public bus these are rural school bus routes that only operate at this time during term time.

ChaToilLeam · 03/10/2021 12:14

I don’t think you can really expect the bus driver to do anything on his own. How can he throw the culprits off the bus if they refuse to go, he can’t physically remove them? Complain to the bus company and the school by all means, and don’t drop the poor driver in it. It is horrible behaviour, I agree.

Morgoth · 03/10/2021 12:28

I completely feel for you OP. I’m sorry you and other posters are having such upsetting times on the morning buses. I’m a teacher who gets to school on the bus and I’m frequently on the bus with students at my school. I’m appalled by some of the behaviour I see. It’s anti-social, upsetting and frightening for the other passengers on the bus. I always try to track them down at school or find their form tutor to make a complaint. Schools will absolutely investigate, reprimand and sanction kids who misbehave on public transport. The school will take it seriously, I promise you.

I know the bus drivers can’t throw kids off the bus, (even though I wish they could because they absolutely deserve it) because they’d just get accused of neglect and assault and leaving minors stranded. Bad behaviour in general with schoolchildren is getting worse every year. Obviously it’s not every child and most are lovely but behaviour at the moment in this country is shocking. We’ve had 4 teachers quit on the spot already one month in. What you witness in the classrooms spills over onto public transport.

Generalpost · 03/10/2021 12:45

@user64323

I get the bus to and from school with my reception age child. I am really struggling with how to cope with the awful behaviour of teenagers from the school next door to my son's. For the record, this is a public bus, and not a school bus.

Today as usual there were no empty double seats, and my son was wobbly trying to hold on to the bar so I asked a teenage girl if she could please move her leg off the seat next to her so he could sit down. She moved it slightly but refused to move her knee off it, as she was talking to her friends in the seats behind. She then went on and on about how she was going to fucking batter the stupid fucking bitch etc on and on and on. A girl on the other side of the aisle kept kicking the back of my leg. As soon as a seat became available further up I moved my son into it to try and get away from the swearing. Unfortunately this was right next to a group of younger teens about age 13 who were very roughly play fighting, swiping each others legs, smacking each other over the head, hitting with bags, kicking etc eventually when one was grabbing another in the aisle by the ankles trying to knock him backwards I asked them to please stop, because if he falls back he is going to land on my son. They stopped for maybe a minute and then just carried on.

Then one boy huffed very loudly behind me, apparently because his stop was approaching. Then he did the same to the people in front and started swearing about needing to get off. I told him to try saying excuse me, and people might move for him. A few more pushed passed me. Then approaching our stop a boy probably about 16 or 17 and 6ft tall shoved me out the way very roughly by my shoulder followed by 'scuse' and nearly knocked me off my feet, I confronted him and told him I was also getting off at this stop and if he'd said excuse me I could have told him and there is no need to push me. Then my son who no longer had anything to hold on to fell over into the fighting kids while the boy who shoved me was screaming 'Who the fuck are you talking to? who the fuck do you think you are! I fucking said excuse me you stupid cow' etc I left the bus very shaken up and queried the driver about the fighting kids and asked why they hadn't been asked to leave the bus, and he said there was nothing they could do about it because they have a duty of care to minors. I said, so they could do anything they want? He said yes, I ended up crying, I was just full of frustration and shock from being shoved, and now I don't think I can ever get on the bus again because they know they can do whatever they want and they saw me so upset and probably revelled in it.

What about a duty of care to other passengers? If this was a school bus service I would understand, but this is a public route. The buses on the route are every half hour so they wouldn't be left stranded if they behaved enough to be asked to leave. Surely a bus driver isn't in loco parentis? I will be getting in touch with the bus company to find out if this is right, but if it is, I don't feel safe to take the bus anymore. If adults fought or shoved they'd be done for assault, so how is this allowed?

There is a very small minority of other pupils who take this bus who hate it too, they will offer a seat or ask others to say excuse me when they shove and they look absolutely miserable, there should be a duty of care to them too.

AIBU to think that teenagers shouldn't be able to run riot on public buses, and bus drivers should have a duty of care to other passengers to keep them under control or kick them off?

I told him try saying excuse me

confronted him

These kids were well out of order for how they were acting. I really think there should be proper school buses. Or at least some sort of authority on the bus. Weather its school staff police or the volunteer police.

Hopefully this was a one of situation. There are lots of posts here at the moment about reception just starting school etc so I do wounder if it was a shock to the system how school runs on public transport would be. I remember back in the day . The younger children finished earlier ks1 was 3.15 ks2 was 3.30. Ks3 and over was 3.45 . So it was more staggered and gave the younger kids /parents a chance to get home before the bigger kids got on. Don't understand why they changed it.

One thing I do wounder though is it seems that you felt vulnerable. So why did you feel the need to say "try saying excuse me?" And also confronted them ? They were getting of the bus 5 more seconds of their bullshit and you were free of that person but the last few seconds you said something and ended up left feeling shit .

happyjules · 03/10/2021 12:50

For anybody wondering why the driver doesn't do anything.. From my experience it's just not worth the potential for retaliation. We have have a difficult and thankless job most of the and at at the princely wave of £9.55 an hour, frankly, I'm just not paid enough. Now does anyone want my job?

Cornettoninja · 03/10/2021 13:03

I’d complain to the school via email and include the bus company, local police and local MP, maybe even the local paper depending on where you are. It’s part of a wider problem of anti-social behaviour and needs input from lots of angles.

The driver has very limited power and these kids know it.

I doubt very much that much will be done outside of the schools procedures but if nobody raises it the less it’s acknowledged.

Macncheeseballs · 03/10/2021 13:04

Baking, is it OK for school kids to use the bus if it's raining? and also if its only a 10 minute walk, why not walk it yourself and catch the bus after the school stop

GladAllOver · 03/10/2021 13:05

If the bus driver had to get out to remonstrate with the kids, the service would just grind to a halt. And if the kids refuse to behave what can he do? He's not allowed to physically throw them off.

Athenajm80 · 03/10/2021 13:09

I sent a tweet once tagging in a local school as I was on the bus with a load of their pupils. An older gentleman got on and was a bit unsteady so clearly needed a seat and none of the kids moved. They were taking up the first 3 or 4 rows, including the bits for disabled people/pushchairs. I was about 5 rows back so led the man to my seat. The school messaged me back, asking if I would be happy to come into the school and identify the children. I did say I didn't think it needed that but perhaps a reminder in assembly would be good. Since then, they have always moved for elderly people. They can't wear their masks properly, but at least they have learned courtesy 😁

The school were lovely and said if there are any incidents of misbehaviour in the bus, then please contact them again.

BobMortimersPetOwl · 03/10/2021 13:17

I think it sounds horrible.

But the bus driver is employed to drive the bus, not parent children who get on the bus. He's also right in that he can't just kick children off the bus.

The school is where your complaint should be directed.