No more school buses

[lizzybennet]

I'm not letting the kids ride the bus anymore. I'm just tired of the small acts of bullying that constantly go on at that school. And when my kids tell the bus driver/teacher/recess monitor, they never get help. They get ignored. They get told "Well, if you don't know the kids name than I can't do anything about it." Or they get told that it was their fault. The totally ironic thing is that this school makes such a huge deal about fighting bullying. One of their weekly activities (like library or music) is counseling. Fat lot of good that does. How about the kid who calls Petey "Pee"? Or the kid who punched him in the back when he tried to clean up a ball at recess? Or what about the kid who called zack a chicken weiner? Or the kid who stole his jacket and hid it?

Chris hates this school but I've been more forgiving. I've been willing to give them the benefit of a doubt. Not anymore. My kids aren't riding the bus, which means they won't be there for before-school recess (which is where most of this happens.) I'll pick them up after school too, so they don't have to deal with mean kids and an indifferent bus driver. Last night when Zack told me about the chicken weiner remark, it was just too much. I remember how kids can get away with a lot (A LOT) on buses. I don't want my kids exposed to that.

Comments

[frizbeemom.livejournal.com]

I've been stressing out because I can't manage to change my schedule early enough to have the kids ride the bus home. Instead, they go to the school's small in-house program for before/after school care and we pick them up and drop them off. Maybe I'll stop stressing about them not coming home straight from school. Maybe we are eliminating some problems I don't even know about! I wish kids weren't so mean!!!! Teasing/bullying/making fun of others was SOOO not tolerated when I was growing up (small church school) and it really amazes me sometimes on how cruel kids are ALLOWED to be to each other. We as adults stand by and wring our hands but no one puts the fear of God into those kids so that they treat each other like human beings. Instead, we let them do their things. I think the school should be more responsive.

[mysteena.livejournal.com]

I agree, the school should be more responsive. We have parent/teacher conferences at the end of this week and you can be sure we'll be talking about this problem. I wouldn't sweat about your kids not riding the bus. I'm sure they're better off at the school. There's just no way a bus driver can supervise what's happening on the bus and drive at the same time. The oldest kids on my kids' bus are in fifth grade. At the beginning of the year I thought that would be fine. At least they didn't have mean middle schoolers, right? I guess there's no age limit on meanness.