Bus ride too long in East Cobb schools. (transfer, live)

[208happystreet]

Bullying in fact is a problem on buses. Its not something I would discuss with my neighbors as its none of their business. Many parents keep their mouths shut and keep this a private matter. I have known numerous kids to have problems on buses and to keep peace parents drive their kids instead. Furthermore, I drove one of my children to a school we were not zoned for, for a year and my neighbors had no clue, once again it was a private matter and it was none of their business. So before you are up in arms about parents driving their kids to school, in fact a number of these parents have extremely valid reasons and if the same circumstances applied to your family you'd be doing the same.

[floyd242]

Snowflakes.

[noah]

Isn't that illegal in many parts of the metro area.

Originally Posted by 208happystreet

I drove one of my children to a school we were not zoned for, for a year and my neighbors had no clue, once again it was a private matter and it was none of their business.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by noah

Isn't that illegal in many parts of the metro area.

Yep. In almost all parts of the metro area.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by 208happystreet

Bullying in fact is a problem on buses. Its not something I would discuss with my neighbors as its none of their business. Many parents keep their mouths shut and keep this a private matter. I have known numerous kids to have problems on buses and to keep peace parents drive their kids instead. Furthermore, I drove one of my children to a school we were not zoned for, for a year and my neighbors had no clue, once again it was a private matter and it was none of their business. So before you are up in arms about parents driving their kids to school, in fact a number of these parents have extremely valid reasons and if the same circumstances applied to your family you'd be doing the same.

I can't speak for all school districts, but I drove for five year for Cobb in the northeast portion of the county, drove almost every route for all schools in the Lassiter/Pope districts and a lot of others in the Sprayberry and Walton districts.

Anytime you deal with a large number of children, you will have some discipline problems. They were not frequent, but when I did have problems, they were 98% on the middle school buses. I had excellent back up from the administration at every middle school and they handled the problems when I would turn a student in for causing a problem.

Since this thread originated about East Cobb bus routes, I must stand by the excellent transportation department that Cobb County provides and the great support we had from the schools to ensure that all bus routes were a safe, "bully free" ride for all students.

While I am sure there is the rare exception to this rule, the real reasons a parent would drive a kid to school in East Cobb would be for any number of things besides discipline. Bullying would be at the bottom of the list because it is not tolerated by the bus drivers or the schools. A nice excuse for a parent to list, but in reality not an issue if the driver, the student, the parent and the administration are communicating and dealing with the issue.

My position was called a "retainer" which is bus speak for a substitute driver. In the transportation department, this was a position given to more capable drivers because you had to be ready at a momen't notice to fill in for another driver and read a map well and know all the routes and stops for an entire zone. From the student's perception, when I drove, they would think "substitute" and relate it to a substitute teacher, someone who comes into their school and doesn't know the rules and structure like their regular teacher. They would try and get away with things with me that they wouldn't on their normal route. They didn't realize that we were full time and aware of everything that needed to be done in the situation and didn't put up with monkey business.

I relate this because I rarely had problems in this position. For the majority of their time on the bus with their regular driver, there was even less problem. I did not have time to learn all the kid's names and such, but their assigned driver did.

Making up an excuse about discipline, at least in a well run district like Cobb, is a weak one.

[Tori1973]

Thank you so much for the information so relieved the bus ride in East Cobb is not an hour. My six year will have a little adjustment, school here on Long Island starts at 8 am. I am getting a little nervous, though seems that traffic in the morning is not that great there. I guess I will just have to see for myself, but when I visited my first time it is a very beautiful place to live!

[kaday]

Originally Posted by Tori1973

Thank you so much for the information so relieved the bus ride in East Cobb is not an hour. My six year will have a little adjustment, school here on Long Island starts at 8 am. I am getting a little nervous, though seems that traffic in the morning is not that great there. I guess I will just have to see for myself, but when I visited my first time it is a very beautiful place to live!

Sorry Tori we got off topic. For the record my kids have a 5 minute ride and we live in East Cobb. The only real adjustment we had to make was the earlier bus/start times for school....its an hour earlier than our school up North. Best of luck with your move.

[RainyRainyDay]

Right! Tori, my daughter had about a 20 minute ride when she was in elementary school (also in East Cobb), but that was because she was at the very first stop on the route. It was more like a 5 minute ride on the way home, because she was first off.

Welcome and best wishes!

[cityrover]

local kids are picked at 630am 50 minutes isn't long when you factor in all the stops. say 5 minutes per stop, or even @ 1 minute per stop if they have to make 30 stops to pick up all the kids in the bus.

i dont know, do people expect a personal limo service? if you have an issue with that, drive your kids to school. thats what my neighbors do.

i was expecting to see a 3 hour commute or something, but when people whine about 50 minutes free service.. wow!

[cityrover]

Originally Posted by noah

Isn't that illegal in many parts of the metro area.

yep and with very bad penalties. there was a case in the news about somebody who did that last year or the year before last and was busted for it.