Tips on Teaching Your Kids School Bus Etiquette

God bless our bus drivers! That is one job that I would have a hard time doing. I have a hard enough time driving my loud girls all over town, I could not imagine driving over 40 kids! Over the past few years I have seen some very disturbing videos of how kids, of all ages, have acted on school buses not only towards each other but towards the bus driver or bus monitor. Recently a bus driver was driving either middle school or high school aged kids back to their homes and someone threw a water bottle at the bus driver. He stopped the bus, stood up and asked who threw the bottle. A boy walked up to him and started pushing him and eventually pushed him out of the bus. A few years ago a bus monitor was sitting in the back of the bus and boys started to call her fat and then making fun of her when she began to cry. I have also seen kids bully other kids and physically assault other kids. When I see these videos I have to wonder what their parents would think if they knew what was going on or what their parents think when they actually see these videos go viral. Then I sit back and wonder if parents take the time to sit down with their kids before they start riding a school bus to discuss how to act towards authority and towards classmates. To be honest, until today, I had never thought to do this. I just assumed that my kids knew how to act but as they say, as the cats away the mice will play. Since I am not the only parent who has kids ride the school bus I thought I would compile some tips on teaching your kids school bus etiquette. Please make sure that you share this with other parents and with kids that may be riding the school bus or that currently ride the school bus.

Here are just a few etiquette tips when your child is riding the school bus, please feel free to add more:

• Listen to the bus driver
• Answer politely and show respect
• Speak to the bus driver loud and clear- with so many kids on the bus it can be hard to hear
• Sit in the seat that is designated to you and do not move unless the bus driver or bus monitor allows you to
• Speak in a quiet or regular voice to your neighbor, do not yell across the bus
• Do not stand up or move around the bus while it is moving
• Do not throw objects
• If someone does not have anywhere to sit, if you have room let them sit with you, then you should let them sit with you. You never know you may make a friend.
• If the driver does not allow you to eat or drink on the bus, don’t! If you are allowed to eat and drink, then clean up your mess.
• Do not go out the emergency exit door unless there is a true emergency.
• Keep your personal items in front of you
• Face forward and don’t turn around because if there is an accident it could be tragic.
• Stay seated on your bottom!
• If someone is being picked on do your best to go to the bus driver when the bus has stopped and let them know.
• Keep your hands to yourself
• When you exit the bus, follow the exit procedures- do not push, do not run and wait for the signal from the bus driver to let you know when to cross the street.

These may seem to be common sense rules to most people but it’s better to be safe than sorry. If your child, no matter how old they are, already rides the bus, it would not hurt to review these tips with them as well. Do you have any etiquette tips that you can add to this list? Please share.