When parents of student passengers give their trust and confidence that their bus driver will act in their best interest, that driver accepts a powerful role that directly influences student behavior.
Nancy Blackwelder is a training consultant in Pinellas County, FL, who works with schools on transportation issues. She says any person in direct contact with children in an education setting essentially becomes a teacher.
“They may not be teaching science and math, but school bus drivers are teaching very important social skills,” says Blackwelder. “A driver teaches children to wait their turn in line, keep hands to themselves, to be respectful and responsible, and to be safe.”
Blackwelder stresses this point in harassment issues involving a bus driver and students, and sees any type of harassment, sexual or otherwise, an especially sensitive issue best handled through preventive training up front.
Defamation of characterShe says drivers accused of abuse and who may even be innocent of the charges, can face defamation of character that leads to loss of trust, creates stress in relationships or causes them to relocate to another school or another city.
To avoid being put it such compromising positions, drivers need to know the precise behaviors and actions that are inappropriate in the development of school children.
In her school transportation training programs, Blackwelder recommends background checks as the logical first step in hiring, and even provides them herself. But that is certainly not the only step in evaluating a driver’s personality. While drivers should act with common sense in terms of what is appropriate behavior, operators should not assume new hires have that knowledge.
“Operators need to train drivers to understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touch,” says Blackwelder. “They need to know about the importance of appropriate boundaries and how to avoid activities that have the potential to exploit a child.”
Define boundariesTo understand the risk factors and better define the appropriate boundaries between students and bus drivers, Blackwelder developed a list of what drivers must do and what they must not do:
- Maintain a friendly demeanor toward all students
- Act fairly and consistently with all students
- Respect the students’ cultural boundaries
- Make an effort to acknowledge all students
Do not do this:- Strike or physically assault a child in any way
- Meet with students anywhere other than the vehicle
- Make sexually suggestive remarks
- Show favoritism toward a student
- Tell hurtful or suggestive jokes that ridicule the students
While common sense is the general rule for appropriate interaction with children, Blackwelder says operators and school officials should never assume an adult will necessarily act with common sense. The risks associated with harassment cases are too significant to forgo proper training and bus monitoring.
School districts and insurance companies rely on video documentation of onboard behavior. However, Robert Scott, vice president of marketing and sales, 247 Security Inc, Alpharetta, GA, says schools should not use the technology strictly as a punitive tool.
While systems such as 247’s have cleared up litigious issues, training and tools such as video are also crucial to incident prevention. Scott says the audio feature in 247 products has proven successful because the harassment that takes place on school buses is typically verbal rather than physical.
Zane Ewton is assistant editor of BusRide magazine, Phoenix, AZ. [busride.com]
