CMS Bus driver Fired after radio stunt. (Charlotte: transporting, crime)

[Hoagie58]

Originally Posted by ssd3

20 years old and responsible for a bus load of kids. That sounds very young to me. All the bus drivers I have ever had, for myself and my children have all been adults with children or grandchildren. At 20 years old I did not have the maturity that it takes for that kind of job nor do I think I would have had the experience or confidence to confront someone who came onto my bus that did not belong there .

I know plenty of 18 year olds that are responsible for driving tanks, repairing jet fighters, and crewing huge ships. I dont think age really amounts to a hill of beans, as an accurate measure of how mature someone is/can be. I cant speak for her confidence in relation to confronting someone she didnt feel belongs there, but there is also no direct correlation between age and confidence.

The driver certainly deserves a degree of blame, but there is at least 95% of the balance to be shared among the other parties...IMHO.

[ssd3]

Originally Posted by Hoagie58

I know plenty of 18 year olds that are responsible for driving tanks, repairing jet fighters, and crewing huge ships. I dont think age really amounts to a hill of beans, as an accurate measure of how mature someone is/can be. I cant speak for her confidence in relation to confronting someone she didnt feel belongs there, but there is also no direct correlation between age and confidence.

The driver certainly deserves a degree of blame, but there is at least 95% of the balance to be shared among the other parties...IMHO.

Hoagie you are absolutely right about the 18 year olds serving our country, I stand corrected. My husband was one of them and it took him 3 years of training before he could perform his job on a submarine. They were properly trained and if they couldn't handle it they would not be allowed to drive a tank or repair jet fighters. This situation is nothing like fighting a war but there still needs to be proper training.

[Hoagie58]

Originally Posted by ssd3

Hoagie you are absolutely right about the 18 year olds serving our country, I stand corrected. My husband was one of them and it took him 3 years of training before he could perform his job on a submarine. They were properly trained and if they couldn't handle it they would not be allowed to drive a tank or repair jet fighters. This situation is nothing like fighting a war but there still needs to be proper training.

Totally agree!! In addition to the training, there needs to be a way for bus drivers to identify students. For this lapse, I hold CMS as a district accountable.

It's sad to me that there were parents at the bus stop that knew what was going on, and they still allowed this driver to fail!

It's sad to me that The Beat pulled this kind of crap. If you lisen to their morning show, they are not about hard hitting journalism, and exposing the dangers of unsecured buses. They are about getting a cheap laugh at someone elses expense.

It's sad to me that Peter Gorman's best response to this was firing this young lady. Seriously, in light of all the mitigating factors, wouldn't a suspension, and some additional training have sufficed?

I have 3 children that ride CMS buses. I know, as a parent if someone had pulled this crap on my kids' bus there would have been hell to pay. But, seriously, for the bus driver to be the only one to suffer consequences is asinine!

[theroc5156]

If anything, they should give this woman her job back but put her on probation for the rest of the school year. I guarantee you she will be even more diligent in her driving and work even harder not to even come close to violating any rules and ensure everyone's safety on the bus. Isn't this exactly what we want?

[Hoagie58]

Originally Posted by theroc5156

If anything, they should give this woman her job back but put her on probation for the rest of the school year. I guarantee you she will be even more diligent in her driving and work even harder not to even come close to violating any rules and ensure everyone's safety on the bus. Isn't this exactly what we want?

Yep!!!

[thebalogas]

Originally Posted by flexysteve

In today's Observer the driver says the CMS didn't provide the drivers with a list of students and usually don't for the first few days.

I think the person at CMS who thought that plan up should get fired. How the hell is the bus driver supposed to know who she's supposed to pick up and who's she's not? I guess it's a free for all on the first few days.

With those kinds of checks and balances, I might see if there's any buses that go on my route to work and hop on one and save gas money

Did anybody stand behind her on no list? My sister drives a school bus for Rutherford County and she gets lists starting 3 weeks out and they are updated weekly. She plans a seating chart for her bus. But it she didn't get lists, she wouldn't know if there were any new stops. That doesn't make sense to me.

[ncopus99]

Originally Posted by Hoagie58

Note, no full beard. Does this guy really look that much unlike some of the kids we see getting on the bus every day? As for the uniform- is that policy for the bus driver to enforce? I'm not saying she was totally blameless, but this crap wasn't an "expose" til dumba$$ "Cubbie" got himself arrested. This was moronic Brutha Fred being his sorry, played out self. The cast of the show should be standing in line right behind the bus driver, but because the stunt suddenly got some credibility, they're being hailed as heroes! Ridiculous!!

Middle school kids look alot younger than Cubbie. Come on

[Hoagie58]

Originally Posted by ncopus99

Middle school kids look alot younger than Cubbie. Come on

Ok, then let's try this route- the lady driving the bus has an annual salary of $16000. How much confrontation would you put yourself in for $16000?

[Whytewulf]

A side glance, I coudl see how you might just take him for a kid, she probably didn't know he was an adult. So thats a training issue. If I saw someone at my job get fired everytime they made a mistake, even a big one, wow, I wouldn't be working here either. At 20 and one year experience. Also how many "awesome, well attentioned" people are they going to get to drive a rowdy bus of kids of $16,000 a year? Either way, someone hopefully will help her out. Give the station people a week suspension and lets move on. They exposed a risk, even through a joke, CMS shoudl address it.

Also of note, Gorman didn't fire her, he was suprised she got fired according to the articles I read. I bet he was just planning a suspension and training.

[flexysteve]

Originally Posted by Hoagie58

Ok, then let's try this route- the lady driving the bus has an annual salary of $16000. How much confrontation would you put yourself in for $16000?

If that is what is required of the job, you knew the requirements of the job and that's how much you agreed to be paid to work in that position, and you failed to perform your duties then you deserve to be fired.

If someone feels they're underpaid then they should complain to management or quit, not pick and choose what parts of their job they feel like doing. If a pilot feels he's being underpaid then should he not land the plane?

Should a soldier who signed up for the army under his own free will decide he's not going into combat until he gets a bonus?

If CMS gave no training or didn't inform this driver of her duties, they are at fault.
If CMS told the woman of her duties and she didn't do them, she deserves to be fired.
If CMS wants to find better trained, more experienced drivers who will prevent a possible threat to the people on the bus, maybe they should pay more and be more selective in hiring.