Difficult behaviour in the school taxi how should I handle it?

[magso]

My son (just 8) attends mld school and goes by school transport in a taxi with escort and 2 other children. He started 6 weeks ago and originally was picked up in a bus but that was changed to a taxi with a new 'crew' 3 weeks ago I dont know why. Apparently his behaviour today was intolerable and the taxi driver may refuse to take him if it happens again. Apparently he was in the front seat (no car booster seat) screeching and touching the driver and controls, and didnt stop when asked. I suspect it has been a problem building up Ds is in constant motion. The escort sits in the middle between 2 children, a third child usually one of the other chilren (a more able child) sits in the front, but today they put Ds infront. In Ds defence he said the driver was playing,(he seemed confused as to why he should not play too) so I assume they were jollying things along or singing.
Ds (sld adhd asd) is never allowed in the front seat of our car and is not accustomed to no booster seat. He behaves well in our car but does need external control iykwim he is not yet able to always behave appropriatly without direction! I have suggested that he doesnt sit in the front (all those tempting levers!) that he is reminded to stay quiet and keep his hands to himself. I have told him that he must never touch the driver and what could happen if a loud noise makes the driver look away from the other cars! If he ignores a warning he will go to his (TV free) room for 5 minutes to calm down on return home.
Do you think I should suggest to the taxi team that the atmosphere is kept calm? Where do I stand if the school taxi do refuse to take him? Should I involve the school?

I would not be happy with no booster seat (and transport here will not take a child without one) and I would NEVER put ds1(8, ASD, SLD) in the front seat. Actually we did once in a campervan and he grabbed everything.

Get onto transport. It sounds as if they're not providing suitable transport for him. "and didn't stop when asked" er of course he didn't- that goes with his diagnoses. (that sarky comment was aimed at them not you!). I think you can kick up a bit tbh. They should have given you notice of a transport change really. They had to change some transport arrangements at ds1's school recently and there loads of notes about it, and numbers to ring at the council (and ds1 wasn't even affected- still got all the info).

Oh yes do talk to the school, A lot of our escorts work in the school as well. They may be able to swap him to something more appropriate or have some goood advice. It must be a problem that has come up before.

Thanks Yurt you expressed exactly (as you always do) what i was feeling but couldnt express! I was quite shocked really to see Ds in the front! Trouble is he looks so able and can speak better than he understands iykwim. I would not drive with Ds next to me! If he screaches I just stop the car (once I can) until calm returns - but this hasnt happened in our car for some time now. I guess a taxi full of kids can't do that.

I had a bad experience with school transport, the escort turned up one sunday afternoon to pick him and announced that she hoped he was going to be good as she had a hangover!! Needless to say i complained and they then topped that behaviour by screaming abuse at me in the street next time they dropped him off about how they had heard that i didnt like the way they looked after my child. I turned round quite calmly and said that i hadnt been brought up to behave like them and i went into my house and slammed the door, i was onto ed transport on Monday morning and told them that my son would be walking 150 miles to school before he got into the taxi with her again.. We now have a much much better taxi service thank goodness!!

Thanks all! Things are looking better! I decided to involve school and write to the taxi staff with my concerns and suggestions(rather than stand on the doorstep talking infront of DS). It is a new transport contract, which needed some tweaking after a few weeks. The 'taxi crew' know more about how Ds works (or doesn't!) Ds has to be reminded of the rules before getting in the taxi. Things have been much calmer! I will see how it goes!