by Mary Teresa Fowler

Created on: November 17, 2008   Last Updated: May 16, 2009

There needs to be a voice for students everywhere who are caught in the middle between unruly school bus students and their parent, the school bus driver. You don't have to be in the driver's seat to see where this road can take them. It leads down a road which should never have to be travelled by any student or their family. A school bus can be the lifeline for a family and yet still the bane of their existence. School bus driving can provide a family with a living and yet simultaneously be smothering the spirit of an innocent student.

School bullying can occur in every area of school life and at every level of the school system. Students and drivers on school buses endure bullying at an alarming rate. School bus drivers drivers frequently suffer abuse on a daily basis - threats of physical harm, shouting of obscenities, thrown objects, threats and damage to their property during off school hours, harassing phone calls, and blatant untruths being spread about a community.

It is indeed unfortunate to have to endure such abuse to make a living for your family. It is very troubling when you realize that the driver becomes the target of such abuse for enforcing the bus rules and reporting students who break those rules. I feel for school bus drivers who sometimes give even decades of their life to try to ensure the safety of students.

My heart goes out even more so to the child of the school bus driver who finds himself caught in the middle. He endures abuse for being the child of the school bus driver. He feels loyalty to his parent and just wants everyone to stop the abuse.

He knows that the school is aware of the situation. He knows that the school is being informed on almost a daily basis. He knows though that years have passed and there has been no change. He knows there will be no change until attitudes change in the community. He knows he has years of school left before graduation!

There is no escape for this child. The end of the school day makes him a captive audience for a show of abuse being hurled at himself and his parent, the school bus driver. If you live in a rural area and have no family vehicle, this school bus is your only means of transportation to school.

The law requires you to attend school. Every school day becomes more and more difficult for this child. He will think of the morning bus ride in the night and the evening bus ride all during the school day. He will take extraordinary means to somehow escape the tormentors.

He will cry daily as a child. He will not cry as a teenager. He will bottle his emotions inside him - until...!

The ending will be as individual as the child! School bus bullying is bullying on the move!

Learn more about this author, Mary Teresa Fowler.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.