Community Day School
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Dear Parents,
Something that seems so simple to an adult can become a big deal when in a child's hands. One day a CDS student in my classroom was riding on the bus to school. He lived near a golf course. He has picked up a golf ball at the bus stop and put it in his pocket. He says that he grew bored on the way to school so he began rolling the golf ball around on the bus floor. The bus was full when the bus driver saw the ball roll right under the gas peddle. She braked and picked up the ball. He did not volunteer that it was his ball but enough other students saw it to make the bus driver feel confident that he was the culprit. He was an 8th grader, 14 years old.
When the parents received the bus referral they refused to believe that their son would do this. They demanded to question the witnesses. Instead of this, the parent sat with the bus superintendent and viewed the videotape from that date.
You probably think that any reasonable person would support the bus driver over something so dangerous, I thought so, too. The video clearly showed him leaning over and rolling the ball, picking it up and rolling again, and again, and again.
Still think parents might support the bus driver - nope. They saw students turning around in their seats (watching the ball), talking and laughing, not sitting quietly facing forward. The father spent our precious lunch time yelling at us for not controlling the students on the bus.
This family took the student out of our school and began to home school him because we had too high of expectations and none of knew how to teach or drive a bus or cook, we were all incompetent.
PLEASE help us do our job. Please help kids get to school safely.
We are part of the support system for your child and we care about him/her. We wouldn't do this job if we didn't care about kids. I told you that story so you could see how a simple situation can become a huge one. Let's be there locking our arms together around your child and holding him/her to the place we believe she should be...let's not let her/him decide.
Thank you for checking on our bus rules.
Bus Rules
School District Community Day School students are frequently passengers of our district or county buses. The school district will do whatever is necessary to protect the safety of students and staff involved in bus transportation. When students fail to correct disruptive or distracting behavior, bus privileges will be suspended and parents/guardians will be required to transport their child promptly to and from school.
To assist students in understanding their responsibilities for proper travel to and from school, the following rules and regulations are to be observed while riding the buses of the school district.
Community Day Bus Rules
Every school district has a set of bus rules that will apply to Community Day School students.
We recommend all Community Day School students be required to sit in the first three seats on the bus. It is a great incentive for students to be rewarded when they reach level four on the five point level system to be allowed to sit where they want on the bus (within bus driver guidelines). When a student reaches level 4 they are showing that they are working toward exiting the Community Day School program. It is very helpful to test the students behavior to see if they can maintain on a school bus. The times students are without immediate supervision are few and these times should be utilized to test readiness to exit the program successfully.
For the safety of all students, students will only be let off at their regular bus stop. If a student is intending to ride a different bus or depart at a different stop, they must have prior approval with a note signed by the parent/guardian. Students with a note are to inform the Secretary in the morning that they are riding a different bus. Do not wait until the end of the day. Students will not be permitted to call to get permission to ride a different bus or go home with a friend.
Consequences for Breaking the Bus Rules:
Below you will find one school districts bus citation policy. I feel strongly that safety on a bus must be the first priority. However, I would like to see the bus citation rules revised to allow for more levels of being removed from the bus before being taken off for the remainder of a school year.
A district transportation policy committee would be a great place to discuss the transportation of at-risk youth.
Disciplinary Transportation Citations
1. Citation Number One:
The first citation will result in a front seat assignment on the school
bus for a total of 10 rides either to or from school. Citations will be
mailed to parents within one week.
2. Citation Number Two:
The second citation will result in a phone conversation with parent or
guardian, principal, then bus driver and the student. The student will
then lose their bus ride privilege for one week. Parents may meet with
the principal and the bus driver to determine a safety plan.
3. Citation Number Three:
The third citation will result in denial of the student's bus riding privilege
for the remainder of the school year. Bus driver, parent/guardian, student
and principal may meet.
All citations shall be mailed to parents and must be signed by a parent or guardian and returned to the bus driver within two days upon receipt. Failure to return the citation within this period may result in denial of school transportation.
CommunityDaySchool.com
BestCurriculum.com