Vaping on School Buses

[AardvarksNose]

Does anyone know what the law is around vaping on school buses? Google doesnt seem v helpful.

My dc absolutely hate having to sit on a bus with kids vaping near to them - it makes them feel travel sick and gives them a headache. We live semi rurally and there are no alternatives for travel (unless I drive them).

I have asked the school multiple times to tackle the issue but they don't seem to have any interest in doing so.

I am just wondering if the new laws around smoking and vaping could help at all?

It's not on school grounds though is it.

So where are they putting the vape in between getting off the school bus and walking through the door? Surely it's not that hard to observe a child sneaking off to hide a vape off school premises after disembarking the bus.

The excuses being made on this thread are appalling.

My children are bus students too as we're in a village far enough away from the town where the secondary is. (Oldest is actually now in college at a further town and using public buses). Neither have mentioned other pupils vaping on the bus, although both are anti vaping and tell me about 'silly' peers who do.
I think the poster who mentioned contacting County Transport department, who you have to apply to for bus passes, is right. It will be between them and school sending letters/emails home to parents. They need to work together to stop it and give consequences to the children vaping. School don't arrange the transport unless it's a private school, it's a county council thing, like school places. We've had letters reminding students to bring bus passes and saying drivers have the right to not allow children on if they don't show them.
When I went to secondary in 1986 the 5th years (Y11's) smoked at the back of the bus, but by the time I was Y11 and we sat at the back (you moved from sitting at the front to the back through the years!!) more of us disapproved of smoking, or didn't smoke so there was no smoking on the bus. (Rural north essex villages)

They are probably in their bags. If they don't vape or get caught at school then they won't get searched will they. The school bus has zero school staff on it so what can they do. You can say excuses are appaling all you want. This is the long and short of it. Coming from a large city where it was front page news in the last few weeks about a bus driver being attacked for nothing more than driving the bloody bus by teens, I'm not surprised they do nothing. Is it right? No, however these people pick their battles I'm sure.

Let’s assume, as it’s a semi rural area, there is a small fleet of buses going to different villages. Maybe five or six. Each bus, if a single decker, would require a member of staff to be on the bus, so five members of staff on a rotating, every day. If it’s a double decker, it would be ten. So when the bus has dropped off the last passenger, the driver returns to the depot. What happens to the teacher? Does he or she or they, have to get a bus or taxi back to school?

How would it work in the morning? Would teachers have to each join a bus at the depot before it starts picking up children.

Bus companies are, unsurprisingly, not very keen on school runs.

Stop blaming the school. It’s got very little to do with them. They will help if possible, should the bus company identify culprits, but it is outside of school. Schools do not have the resources to deal with this. Are they going to strip search every pupil!?? Obviously not.

I once travelled on a public service bus which was also transport to school for a large number of secondary pupils. As it filled up, a year 11 pupil started barking orders at younger pupils, pointing out spare seats and making sure they sat down. They all followed her instructions, and it was quite clear that no mucking around would be permitted. I emailed the school to say how impressed I was. They clearly had "bus monitors" and presumably anyone who didn't behave would be reported to the school on arrival.

Of course they do. I see this daily.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤦‍♂️

This is so hard, isn't it?

The conversations are the ones I have had with myself!

It seems so defeatist to just shrug and say, 'what can you do?' but also clearly more involved approaches aren't going to happen either.

So we essentially normalise young people being addicted to nicotine (which is harmful to adolescent brains) and inflicting their second and third hand vaping on others in an enclosed and essential space.

Seems quite rubbish.

It was smoking on the school bus in my day, which I hated but there was little we could do about it. The driver never reported it to the school as he was also a heavy smoker.

Our bus companies, one local and one Arriva, have a zero tolerance policy to any shenanigans on school buses. When theres an incident, the local bus driver called the school en route and the bus was met by head, bag searches ensued.(helped that the driver knew the kids and parents) There was cctv on the Arriva bus so culprits soon identified. Followed by sanctions.
When smoking was the thing, bus companies threatened to withdraw services.

Clearly The School cannot completely stop pupils vaping on buses.

What it can do is take some action to try and prevent it eg writing to parents, trying to identify offenders, getting the bus company to take action etc

Agreed.

I’ve never seen anyone vaping or smoking on a bus since it was banned in the early 2000s. If anyone tried it on our buses the drivers would chuck them off pronto.

Apparently vaping massively decreases fertility so this may become a Darwin type job. Every cloud!

Might take quite a while for that to work through though!

This sounds good but time and staff intensive

Exactly, if there's a will to do it it can be stopped.

Surely you just install some CCTV and ask the driver to report any offenders to the school, then let them deal with it? All kids have bus passes, so the driver should know names.