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When I was in grade school, there were no school buses. Everyone, except just a few pampered rich kids, walked or ran to school and back.
Or rode bikes. In my state, there is no bus service unless you live 2 miles from school, which no one did because the town is 1.3 miles at its widest point. Now in the same town all the kids get rides to school.
If the 5 year old would lie about the note, maybe he would lie about the bullies. Maybe he just felt like walking, and was upset that the rules prohibited it, so he subverted those rules. We should never jump to conclusions about what really happens. He might have even been scared of the smell of diesel from the bus engine, but afraid to admit it.
Besides that, if he was really just afraid of spitballs, is that really something that should cause major fear? How much pain do they cause? It seems to me spitballs are more like a game. Like when your dog grabs your cash and runs off with it. He's not trying to steal your cash, but just wants to provoke you into a race. Maybe his mom should make him a spitball jacket, like a hoodie that protects from spitballs.
The new rules in school districts are insane. The bus driver is probably not authorized to "discipline children." In our district, they cannot even raise their voice to a child. The bullies are not to blame, but rather the parents of the bullies and the school for not informing them of their child's behavior.
If (as a student riding the bus) I would have bullied someone, our bus driver would have read me the riot act, and by the time I got home my parents would have been informed--with all of the dreaded consequences soon to follow.
when my daughter was in the middle school. she was being beat up by this other girl.as they were walking home from school. The school started letting my daughter leave school 15 minutes early so the bully couldn't be on the streets the same time as my daughter. shame and of course ten yrs later they are friends.
I myself never liked this girl after my daughter grew up and they started being friends but keep my mouth hut and minded my own busness. the joys of child hood, and now adult hood. lol At least she graduated and got married and has 2 children today. And who watches her kids? lol yep!! the once bully now works with the state as a baby sitter.
The fault of this all lies with the bullies. Not the bus drivers.
Who's running the place, the kids or the grownups?
The bus driver is at fault for not accounting for all of the kids on the route before leaving. The bus driver may also be at fault if (s)he knew or should have known there was an ongoing problem and neither dealt with it him/herself nor informed the school administrators about it. The administration is at fault for letting the bus leave before all of the kids on the route were accounted for. They are also at fault for letting a 5-year-old just walk off on his own without so much as verifying with the parent if that was OK. And the administration may be at fault if they were notified that there was an ongoing problem on the bus and did not adequately deal with it.
Of all the blame to go around here, the bullies themselves fall near the bottom if nobody has pulled them aside to tell them their behavior is unacceptable and won't be tolerated. Kids are not naturally kind to each other, especially as they get older. Kindness is a learned behavior that must constantly be taught and reinforced. If that's not happening, then the adults failed in that aspect too.
Who's running the place, the kids or the grownups?
The bus driver is at fault for not accounting for all of the kids on the route before leaving. The bus driver may also be at fault if (s)he knew or should have known there was an ongoing problem and neither dealt with it him/herself nor informed the school administrators about it. The administration is at fault for letting the bus leave before all of the kids on the route were accounted for. They are also at fault for letting a 5-year-old just walk off on his own without so much as verifying with the parent if that was OK. And the administration may be at fault if they were notified that there was an ongoing problem on the bus and did not adequately deal with it.
Of all the blame to go around here, the bullies themselves fall near the bottom if nobody has pulled them aside to tell them their behavior is unacceptable and won't be tolerated. Kids are not naturally kind to each other, especially as they get older. Kindness is a learned behavior that must constantly be taught and reinforced. If that's not happening, then the adults failed in that aspect too.
You have just neatly summarized the problem with our current culture. Everyone is to blame.... except the bullies and their parents... oh, unless we have informed the little snots that their "behavior is unacceptable." And that does not work like it used to.
My niece is a kindergarten teacher. She informed a student that his behavior was unacceptable. She got a response, "F-you,"--from a five-year-old. When the principal called his parents the mother responded, "well, the teacher must have been really rude to him for him to use such language."
We are fully immersed in a "who's fault is this?" culture. Everyone is to blame but me and mine.
Sad.
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