Should bus drivers deal with errant schoolies?

By MORGAN HOWE
ACTION bus drivers are claiming they are routinely forced to suffer through anti-social behaviour from passengers onboard school services.

The issue has come under public scrutiny after an ACTION bus driver kicked 63 Telopea Park students of the 485 school service last week (9/3/12). The driver has since been suspended from driving on any school routes, and ACTION spokesman James Roncon said his behaviour was unacceptable

“It’s a very, very unfortunate situation.,” he said. “Not one that we support. Not one that we condone and we’ll certainly be driving the message home to our driver workforce loud and clear.”

However, ACTION bus drivers taking school routes are becoming increasingly upset at the treatment they receive from students.

“You do your best to be patient with the kids, but sometimes it feels like a mob of 50 people are just out to irritate you,” ACTION bus driver Richard Finn said.

While the exact circumstances of this event are being reviewed, Mr Finn says students taking advantage of school services repeatedly ignore driver’s demands.

“They (school kids) think because it’s a school route they can do whatever they like. They eat, drink, and repeatedly press the stop button when no one is getting off,” he said.

ACTION’s policy for drivers having difficulty with passengers is to park the bus and call ACTION’s communications room who will dispatch a transport officer. However, it seems there is some support amongst the general public for drivers to adopt harsher measures, including kicking students off buses when necessary.

In a poll conducted on The Canberra Times’ website after last weeks incident, 70% of the 1696 respondents said the bus driver had done the right thing. In a similar poll run on the Canberra community news website The Riot Act, 95% of the 482 respondents believed kicking kids off school busses should happen more often.

However, a spokesman from the Transport Workers Union, who has pledged to support the driver involved, said this is not a desirable result. “We always say to our members that if you think there’s an issue on the bus, there’s an issue on the bus,” the spokesman said. [However,] Leaving kids on the side of the road is not encouraged, (it) is not a good idea”

Catherine Fulton, a teacher at Daramalan College, believes their needs to be greater communication between ACTION and the schools involved. This would prevent unfortunate incidents such as what happened last week occurring again.

“Ideally, kids will be respectful to bus drivers and have a safe ride home,” she said. “If they are causing trouble it would be good if ACTION could inform us so the schools themselves can decide on an appropriate disciplinary approach.”

Twelve parents of students who were kicked off last week’s bus complained to ACTION, and Ms Fulton believes these parents would prefer disciplinary decisions to be made by trained professionals in the area of dealing with children.

“We, outside of the parents themselves, are in the best position to understand these children’s needs and how best to approach such an issue,” she said. “A child will be more worried about the punishment that we can enforce on them, rather than the punishment a bus driver can and this affects their behaviour.”

Mr Finn says he feels bad for the driver involved, who has been with ACTION for three years and about whom no previous complaints have been made.

“It’s a tough situation, and one any bus driver who covers a school route has been through,” he said. “I don’t necessarily agree with what he did, but I wish people would understand what we put up with on a regular basis.”

An internal investigation by ACTION is under way into the incident.