William Penn Life, 1974 (9. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1974-10-01 / 4. szám
Your Society has long known that school bus drivers deserve special recognition for conveying their young charges to and from school. The following article points up some of the many other problems school bus drivers face in the performance of their duties. After you read it, we’re sure you will agree that they deserve to be recognized for their service. ☆ ☆ ☆ “It was the last day of school and only a few kids were left on the bus,” recalled Mrs. Louise Searing, housewife and school bus driver, “when all of a sudden a first grader started hollering so loud I had to park the bus and find out what it was all about.” It turned out she had received a fish bowl and three guppies from her teacher as a “going away gift,” and she had dropped the bowl. “Luckily,” Mrs. Searing continued, “it didn’t break. But she was sobbing, ‘My fishies will all die!’ Well, the other kids and I got down on our hands and knees and we finally got all three of the wriggly things back in the bowl. We got some more water from a man who happened to be watering some shrubs nearby. As soon as the little girl saw that her pets were going to be okay, smiles came through the tears and everything was fine again.” School bus drivers don’t claim such calamities for every run. But enough near calamities occur to make driving a school bus anything but a routine job. Kids swallow marbles, get stung by bees, lose their lunch money, get zippers caught on snowsuits, fight, converse in ear-shattering shouts—and sometimes they sing. They show bus drivers their loose teeth, cat scratches, black eyes, and poison ivy rashes. They frequently write letters of undying gratitude after field trips. They even propose marriage. One veteran driver recalled the time a sweet, eight-year-old girl wanted him to marry her mother. The driver didn’t reveal how he got out of that one! There are some 155,000 school bus drivers in this country, and they transport almost 11 million pupils daily during the school year. In 1971, they drove a staggering total of nearly 1.5 million miles. 8 They Haul The World’s Most Precious Cargo Safety, schedules, and discipline are the biggest headaches, says Augie Pocian, operations manager and driver for Schoolway Transportation Company, Hales Corners, Wisconsin. Augie has been driving for over 15 years. Robert Paradise, president of Schoolway, quickly pointed out that his company, despite an alarming increase nationally in school bus accidents, could boast of “ten years of operation without one single student being scratched in an accident.” Afternoon schedules aren’t too difficult to maintain, say the drivers, but mornings are something else. During the first few weeks of school, especially, there are always a few sleepyheads who cause drivers to turn gray early. The sleepyheads forget books and lunches. Usually they suddenly remember such items just before the bus arrives. Bus stops are also natural gathering places for dogs to bid their young masters farewell. Occasionally one will wedge himself under a seat and insist on riding along. Bus drivers eventually accept and understand all these things; principals and dispatchers seldom do. Asked about the discipline problem, most drivers, including veteran Augie Pocian, tended to discount it. “I haven’t had a case in 13 years I couldn’t handle myself,” said Augie. “If you let ’em know right away the first day of school that you’re the boss on the bus, you have few problems the rest of the year.” “Usually,” agreed Mrs. Searing, “you can nip it in the bud. Like one rainy day I noticed my umbrella was missing from its spot. I looked down the street and there it was, over the head of a teenage girl I had just dropped off. I’m not supposed to leave the bus with passengers in it, so I yelled, ‘Hey, that’s my umbrella you took. Bring it back here. Right now!’ The girl hesitated a minute, but she brought it back, kind of sheepish-like. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. T didn’t know it was yours, honest.’ ” Despite public demands for greater safety, rigorous training programs, inconvenient working hours and low pay, bus companies seem to have little trouble recruiting drivers. What do these retirees, college students, third-shift workers and housewives find so fascinating about this job? There are many answers. Jim Tidball, manager of the New Berlin Bus Company, tried to give some of them for his 90 drivers. “They start driving mostly for a little extra money. Before long they realize they aren’t doing it just for the money. Their attitudes change. They become better drivers of their own cars, they spend extra time cleaning their buses, and well, they’re just proud to be professionals. And, of course, all of ’em love kids.” “Yeah,” chuckled one of Jim’s drivers, “sometimes I wonder why I do it. My wife keeps tellin’ me to get somethin’ that pays better*. But I figure, heck, somebody’s got to haul these kids and sort of set an example for ’em. They’ll get into this crazy world of rockets and protesters and kooks soon enough. And God loves ’em. So who am I to hold out. Heck, I love ’em too.” The New Berlin Bus Company handbook for drivers emphasizes, “ . . . the public feels justified in criticizing you because you are transporting the most precious cargo in the world—their children.” Though few would admit it, perhaps the chief reason school bus drivers cheerfully put up with the disadvantages is that they want to make sure their precious cargo is handled with care twice a day.
