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Eh... Not sure how I feel about this.
When I was in elementary school (And no, I'm not old, so it wasn't long ago) our bus drivers were MUCH worse than this to disobedient, unruly kids.
Okay, I get that she's autistic. What's the driver supposed to do?
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I didn't hear the audio - can't turn on the volume right now - but read the captions.
I don't see anything disturbing about it, except telling her she's acting like a baby, and misbehaving, "as always". But really, that's fairly mild.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Here's what I saw.
The girl gets verbally corrected for sticking her feet into the aisle to trip another student who is exiting the bus. The driver tells her if she doesn't keep her feet in, she'll be "on the window", meaning (I guess) forced to sit in the seat near the window so her feet won't reach into the aisle, in tripping range of other students.
Then the student basically lays down on the floor of the bus and kicks and screams and refuses to exit the bus. So the driver picks her up by both shoulders of her jacket (there is some video edited out) and has to carry the struggling girl to the door of the bus so she can exit the bus.
Sorry, I don't see it. What do you do when a child is purposely trying to trip other students, and then lays on the floor of the bus and flails around, refusing to exit the bus?
No. Just no. Come on. This bus driver, while obviously frustrated as this is a longtime thing, is whipping the situation into a frenzy, deliberately. She even shuts the door on the aide who comes to help. Then she pulls the kid up by her jacket. No way.
I get frustration with autism, believe me. I am the parent of autistic people. The nine thousand and tenth time you have to talk an autistic child off the ledge to get the simplest thing accomplished can be hell, I get that. BUT if you're not cut out for it...DON'T DO IT. Don't have a job driving special needs kids.
Drive a bus for NT kids. They just act up the regular way. OTOH, you can't get away with as much with NT kids. They'll tell. Sometimes, autistic kids literally can't. You can just torture them, which it appears this woman is getting a vindictive rise out of. It is clear that she has been resentful of this girl for some time, based on the things she has said and then...I mean did you look at the way she was yanking the kid up by the jacket? That's a little beyond.
What was the driver supposed to do? REPORT to her superiors that the child will not stay seated. The superiors will then require a 5-point restraint (sounds bad but actually, it's pretty much like a child's car seat 5-point) and if the issues continue she reports again. It is a danger to have kids getting up while a bus is moving, nobody wants to get sued, and it's likely they'd find some other transportation for her, and/or meet with the parents.
That's what she's supposed to do...not slam the door on help in order to advance on a hysterical autistic kid to yank and drop her repeatedly on a bus floor while calling her a baby.
The other thing she should do is get a different job. She IS NOT cut out for busing special needs children. And as I said, I'm not putting that down in and of itself. I had a 5-year-old still messing his pants regularly and only recently verbal, and a very high-needs very loosely on the spectrum (but there) two-year-old still messing his, and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of crying...for years, and lots of taking two hours to get the kids ready and calm enough to go out anywhere. And constant IEPs and constant doctors. A time or two I literally had locked myself in the bathroom for 5 minutes to cry. I get it but when it comes to that point the carer needs help. In THIS case the bus driver is "at that point" and she may actually hurt this child...she needs to get away from that situation...pronto.
I didn't hear the audio - can't turn on the volume right now - but read the captions.
I don't see anything disturbing about it, except telling her she's acting like a baby, and misbehaving, "as always". But really, that's fairly mild.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Here's what I saw.
The girl gets verbally corrected for sticking her feet into the aisle to trip another student who is exiting the bus. The driver tells her if she doesn't keep her feet in, she'll be "on the window", meaning (I guess) forced to sit in the seat near the window so her feet won't reach into the aisle, in tripping range of other students.
Then the student basically lays down on the floor of the bus and kicks and screams and refuses to exit the bus. So the driver picks her up by both shoulders of her jacket (there is some video edited out) and has to carry the struggling girl to the door of the bus so she can exit the bus.
Sorry, I don't see it. What do you do when a child is purposely trying to trip other students, and then lays on the floor of the bus and flails around, refusing to exit the bus?
I was okay with it until the bus driver escalated the situation by closing the door and refusing to let the aid help. Then advanced on the kid.
You didn't see her lift and drop, lift and drop the kid, with fistfuls of jacket? Not even under the arms like a normal person tries to either "help" or restrain a child, one or the other.
This woman started out just fine but then she went off the rails...she is at the point where she needs a break from this. It's obvious.
And yes. You need to listen to the full audio. When I saw the screen shots and some clips without the audio I was thinking along the same lines as you. But then I watched/listened to the full clip, which is cut, BTW (how long did she force the kid to sit there before the kid "screamed and cried?). And with this woman blocking the aisle saying in this weird whiny drawn-out baby voice "You act younger than your sisterrrrrrrrrr! And sheeeeeeeeee's twooooooo!" Just...weird, uncalled for...and kind of getting to the out of control point. Bad situation.
*
Now. People are going to say, "Oh, this is another special snowflake thing, they're using autism as an excuse and you have to restrain 'these kids' somehow." And with the exception of the 'these kids' part, even as the parent of autistic children I would generally agree. Autistic kids CAN be taught and DO advance and learn, at least until a certain point of functionality. In that way, although most people don't believe this, they're like any other kid. They do learn to the extent of their abilities and no, it's not okay to just let an autistic child do "whatever," including stuff that could be dangerous...like sticking feet into an aisle on a bus where people are walking, or acting up while a driver is trying to concentrate on the road.
So I'm usually the first to say "don't overreact" when people panic over reported mistreatment of autistic kids, because until you've been in the situation of having to restrain, you don't know how hard it actually can be. And yes, the looks from other people can be excruciating.
But that's protection. And that's actual danger. This bus driver deliberately drummed up a reaction out of the girl. The girl wasn't "screaming and yelling" UNTIL the bus driver forced her to sit there for I'm not sure how long - the vid was cut. THEN this kid started to panic. THEN the bus driver taunted her and still did nothing, drumming things up further. It was just kind of ill, sorry. Then when real help came the bus driver apparently "talked" to the aide, obviously not showing/telling what exactly was going on there or that the girl was very upset, and closed the door so the aide couldn't get on. It was very, very, very deliberate to ensure no help came and that the kid got as hysterical as possible because obviously this driver has been nursing some anger for a long time and she took her shot to have a "reason" to yank and drop this kid for a little bit.
Sorry, this is *one case* where I'm going to stand behind those saying this was just wrong.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JerZ
I was okay with it until the bus driver escalated the situation by literally slamming the door closed so the aide couldn't get in to help. Then advanced on the kid.
You didn't see her lift and drop, lift and drop the kid, with fistfuls of jacket? Not even under the arms like a normal person tries to either "help" or restrain a child, one or the other.
This woman started out just fine but then she went off the rails...she is at the point where she needs a break from this. It's obvious.
And yes. You need to listen to the full audio. When I saw the screen shots and some clips without the audio I was thinking along the same lines as you. With this woman blocking the aisle saying in this weird whiny drawn-out baby voice "You act younger than your sisterrrrrrrrrr! And sheeeeeeeeee's twooooooo!" Just...weird, uncalled for...and kind of getting to the out of control point. Bad situation.
You may be right. I'll listen to the audio when I can.
You may be right. I'll listen to the audio when I can.
Watch all the way near the very end too because I missed this part...this is the "yanking" thing which is another comment ("yanking") which at first I thought was exaggerated to get views...but at -0.08 the driver literally lifts the girl out of the seat to throw her ON the floor. The kid didn't throw herself on the floor in a tantrum.
That had to be scary as shyte. That's no petite bus driver.
I am so glad my kids are verbal. I'm not quick to jump on teachers, aides, drivers, etc. and I realize any kid, autistic or not, can have a part in things going badly but in this case...the kid was *ordered* not to go anywhere...and she didn't (good girl!) but she dared to cry about it...and so was literally thrown on the floor, then stood over and yanked up and dropped, yanked up and dropped.
Eh... Not sure how I feel about this.
When I was in elementary school (And no, I'm not old, so it wasn't long ago) our bus drivers were MUCH worse than this to disobedient, unruly kids.
Okay, I get that she's autistic. What's the driver supposed to do?
This driver supposedly had many hours of "training," including with special needs children, plus many hours driving a bus. She knew what the protocol was (is). If a child is a danger to herself or others while on a moving bus, the driver contacts his/her superiors to report the dangerous situation. A decision will ultimately be made from there - whether it's a "harness," a shorter time on the route (this isn't always feasible but sometimes the route can be changed in order; we had that happen on my son's bus, actually, so now he gets home later but we're okay with it as my son is fine on the bus and does his homework there), or whatever needs to be done.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 2 days ago)
35,607 posts, read 17,927,273 times
Reputation: 50630
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerZ
Watch all the way near the very end too because I missed this part...this is the "yanking" thing which is another comment ("yanking") which at first I thought was exaggerated to get views...but at -0.08 the driver literally lifts the girl out of the seat to throw her ON the floor. The kid didn't throw herself on the floor in a tantrum.
That had to be scary as shyte. That's no petite bus driver.
I am so glad my kids are verbal. I'm not quick to jump on teachers, aides, drivers, etc. and I realize any kid, autistic or not, can have a part in things going badly but in this case...the kid was *ordered* not to go anywhere...and she didn't (good girl!) but she dared to cry about it...and so was literally thrown on the floor, then stood over and yanked up and dropped, yanked up and dropped.
Holy moley.
Yes, I did miss that. You have to watch through the commentator portion of the news story to see that - and it's certainly, at least, unprofessional.
Eh... Not sure how I feel about this.
When I was in elementary school (And no, I'm not old, so it wasn't long ago) our bus drivers were MUCH worse than this to disobedient, unruly kids.
Okay, I get that she's autistic. What's the driver supposed to do?
The bus driver was an idiot. Why didn't she just let the aide come on the bus and get the girl? Filed under: way to get arrested and fired at the same time.
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