Brian Fitzgerald, 61, had recently started driving for the Douglas County School District when the incident occurred the afternoon of March 1, according to school records obtained by Colorado Springs ABC affiliate KRDO.
In camera footage from inside the bus, released by the school district, the driver can be heard telling Castle Rock Elementary School students to be in their seats before saying, "You guys want to see how dangerous that is?"
The driver should be commended for teaching a life lesson to a pack of unruly brats.
ReplyDeleteHonor and obey your elders is a lost lesson apparently.
As a so called boomer, I was perhaps the very last of the children treated as "should be seen but not heard".
Grandfather and father both very much in favor of this state of affairs. Mind I was welcome to state a cogent question and listen to the response but hooliganism was not tolerated.
My children had a bit more leeway, but there were definite limits and appropriate punishment if exceeded. Best one was to have to take laps around the cul de sac roundabout, no matter the weather,, it worked very well.
Meanie!
DeleteAfter reading the article, I noticed that the driver was very apologetic, I suspect based on advice from his lawyer. So a girl on the bus got a cut on her cheek. If so, I would not have apologized so profusely but offered to pay for any medical attention that the girl's parent s MAY have had to pay for. And if the scar was deep enough perhaps offered to pay for any cosmetic surgery on that scar in the future. But to apologize for teaching unruly children a 'live lesson' is safety!!! NFW woke school board, and prosecuting attorney that handled the case, you escalated this issue and you lost a bus driver for the district has has a modicum of common sense. It is the community's loss.
DeleteIf I had acted like that on a school bus - so very long ago, I'd have had a second cut when my parents found out. Maybe more.
DeleteTeaching common sense and safety these days is ILLEGAL.
ReplyDeleteA motorized Bouncy Castle. It could catch on.
ReplyDeleteGuy's a hero in my book. I love the over-reaction of school officials (is it OK to call them groomers?) about how hard it was to watch the video of those poor children having their unruliness ruined.
ReplyDelete"Hero"? Agreed. Kids are like wild animals any more. Parents seem to find discipline too challenging and think it interferes with their "friendship" with their rotten little bastard kid.
DeleteEd
Wild animals? Rabid animals.
DeleteOne time when I was kid our school bus driver nodded off and we went bouncing across yards with mail boxes flying everywhere before he woke up. It was only the greatest thing that ever happened in my life to that point. That is until the next morning when there was a large Chief Master SGT in uniform standing at the curb with his mail box in his hand at the bus stop. That was even better!
ReplyDeleteIn first grade the bus driver drifted an icy downhill 90° corner until the wheels smacked the bank and we went skidding into an old biddie's yard on the passenger side.
DeleteMost memorable bus ride for me.
Had a boss that went 600 feet of an Ecuadorian cliff in a bus and was in the half that survived, scrambled his eggs but he earned a PhD as part of his rehab.
And I thought Japanese bus drivers were a little on the kamikazee side...
Drove lots of school busses. Most kids are still asleep in the morning - not too many issues. Afternoons, they were very excited to escape the school and get home, and their behavior showed it. Needed them to sit, quiet down, whatever? Stop the bus. Sit there. Eventually someone would ask... "When y'all sit down/quiet down/stop the stoopid - we can get home."
ReplyDeleteBest carrot a driver has...
Yes…..100%…
DeleteEd357
Had a bus driver in 3rd grade that promised us about a week or two before the end of the school year that she'd run over a port-a-potty that was near the school on the last day of school if we would all behave for the remainder of the year. Sadly, it was gone that day. She seemed more upset about not getting to run it over than we were.
DeleteBus driver is the only one with a seatbelt.
ReplyDeleteBe nice.
What good is a seat belt when you need an ejection seat.
DeleteThat happened to me when I was in the 4th grade. Learned my lesson real quick, keep your ass in the seat.
ReplyDeleteA friend's wife is a bus driver for an elementary school. She says at the start of the school year she has to lay down the ground rules and a make couple of examples and for the rest of the year she has very little trouble from the kids. Bus drivers here have a lot of leeway when disciplining kids. They can do pretty much anything short of spanking, including banishment for up to 2 weeks on their own, or permanent expulsion with the principal's signoff. Parents really hate that.
ReplyDeleteShe says the parents cause a lot more problems than the kids.
My bus driver when I was a kid owned/supplied all but 2 of the buses for the entire school system. He was God, if you FA you FO that you weren't riding any more. And Mom and Pop weren't having any of your bullshit either.
ReplyDeleteHTR