Driving a school bus...
 

It's the start of the school year and you are driving the bus for your local elementary school.

The mother of two younger students asks if her kids can sit at the front due to their age.

You ask some of the other kids already on the bus if they would move to the back to let the young kids sit up front.


Are you a monster?

Hmm, so where are you reading that version of the story? Because all the versions I've read have the driver making 9 black children squeeze into 2 seats in the back of the bus.

ETA: OKay, I found one article referencing the request for young children to sit up front...but that doesn't explain why 9 children (including younger ones) were sharing 2 seats in the back, assuming that bit is accurate.

Having BEEN that driver, no, i dont think so.
(obviously there's a news bit here that I dont know about, but I'll ignore that for a moment)

Usually, the rows right by the driver were for kids that already knew me. No kids volunteered to sit in that row if we werent already aquainted.

Would I ask them to move so that the new kids could make their mother happy? Absolutely.
But I also liked to have the kids on the other side of the bus.
Meaning, if I had a small route, I'd keep all kids on the "passenger" side. They were easier to keep track of that way.
Younger kids weren't always visible over the seat back ahead of them.

Ok, so that said.... since I saw GD's post as I was typing... where's the news story? It obviously involves race.

It does make you wonder how big of a bus we are talking about... Why would they have to share seats? Is the bus overcrowded to begin with? If so was it wrong of the driver to "make" the kids from the same family share a seat rather than kids from different families?


Ponie... Link.

If 9 kids have to squish into two seats how many kids are on the bus to start with? Disregarding the race issue isn't that unsafe?

Yeah, it does kinda beg the question of how why there are 7 more butts than seats. But considering everyone's tone, I'm running on the conclusion that that bit seems to be accepted practice (i.e., everyone's well aware of the problem of school-bus overcrowding) 'cause no one's bringing that up. So that brings things back to why, in an assigned seating situation, were these 9 kids the ones assigned to sit on laps.

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round, all over town.

Because they are all from the same family and know each other? Plus they are a good mix of ages, some older some younger.

Or it could be because they are black and the driver is racist but as far as I can tell no-one is even considering the first option.

Yup, the fisrt option is very possible. And, in all honesty, that's what I suspect is the case. But, intended or not, and as lame as it is that this is true, you gotta be an idiot to "send the black kids to the back of the bus". I mean, If it turns out it really was just a case of the bus driver making some accomodations, she isn't disciplined, per se. But it was at best an unwise choice and certainly at this point, transferring her route to avoid the firestorm is the minimally necessary action.