Quickly, think back to when you were in seventh grade. I'm assuming that most of AverageNation has been on a school bus and experienced the following:
You're riding that old cheesebox on a hot Friday afternoon, minding your own business. Kids are excited that the weekend is upon them and those without home training decide to start acting a fool. Spitballs get thrown. Smacks to the back of the head start flying.
You look to the front and that (insert your old bus driver here) starts to get agitated. He/She looks in that long oval rearview mirror and cuts their eyes at YOU. (Really it's the whole bus, but it always seems to be YOU that they are looking at.)
The Bus Driver (BD) warns everybody to sit down, and promptly points to that old, yellowed copy of the RULES posted on the front panel above the door. This doesn't seem to quell the rowdies, who are illiterate, have ADD and can't seem to understand anything but paddles and suspensions.
You know where this is going. While you are still sitting there quietly, the bus clowns go into overdrive. You can't escape it. Now the idiots are hanging out of the windows, egging for the truck drivers next to the bus to toot their horn.
Your window is stuck and won't open. It's hot, and the sweaty, energized fools next to you don't use deodorant. No 'Speed Stick'. No 'Sure'. NOT EVEN TUSSY. (That's the cheapest deodorant you can find.)
The BD has had it. Something snaps in their mind as they realize that they are stuck in the hell that is a sucky $10/hour part time gig, and a hard third shift mill job waiting for them when they finally finish driving.
The bus comes to a complete stop. The BD stands up, faces everyone and starts a profanity laced tirade that lasts approximately five minutes. Everyone is in shocked silence as the announcement is made:
"I'M TURNING THIS MF'ER AROUND!"
(Translation: "This bus is going back to the school house!")
You are guilty by association and you are PISSED. The principal gets on, makes his/her speech, pulls off the guilty, and then you are on your way home.
Now fast forward to 2009. Same scenario. A bus driver in Ohio took things a bit further. Instead of driving the bus back to the school, this BD decided to drive around for 15 minutes or so instead of dropping the kids off.
A Cuyahoga Falls school bus driver could face possible kidnapping charges after he refused to drop children off when they started to misbehave, police said.This would have worked back in 1989, but now the same rowdies that cause all of the ruckus now have an iPhone. All da kids got an iPhone. Texts get sent, Twits get Tweeted, and parents get Bluetoothed from their bratty kids.
Officers said the Dewitt Elementary School children were being driven home after school on Monday when they started to act up. Police said to teach them a lesson, the bus driver drove the students around for 15 minutes instead of dropping them off at their designated stops.
Police said they tracked down the bus and pulled it over after receiving several calls from frantic parents who were contacted by children on board with cell phones.
The mother of 7-year-old Dylan Henderson said a supervisor ordered the driver to return to the compound. The children were then taken home.
The driver has not been charged but the matter is under investigation. Parents were told by police to contact prosecutors to pursue charges.
"MOMMY! The bus driver is kidnapping us! We didn't do anything! I'm scared. There is a gun, and....."
Well, there WASN'T a gun, but you know what happens when clueless parents think their "pure, innocent" overly spoiled kids are in danger.
The police get called.
After "several calls from frantic parents", the police located the bus and school supervisors ordered the driver to return to the compound. Now the driver could face kidnapping charges. KIDNAPPING CHARGES!!!
I believe the children are our future, but it ain't looking good.
*Sigh*
Question: Do you blame the driver in this situation for trying to teach the kids a lesson? Should there be a school ban of mobile devices? If this was your kid in this incident, what would you do? Do you beat the rowdy kids for causing this situation in the first place? What are your most memorable bus moments?
Police: Bus Driver Refuses To Drop Kids Off After School [NewsNet5]
