Bus Mom

The main purpose of my job as a bus driver is to keep the students safe while transporting them to and from school. While doing this I have turned into a bus mom. just like a regular mom I look after the students to make sure that are not hitting each other, rough housing, using bad language  or being mean. When they do we sometimes have to put them in a time out, better known as the front seat.  In fact I have had to take care of students that have had bloody noses, lost teeth and even have accidents. like yesterday I had a couple of my elementary notify me that one of the little girls was crying. So when I was able to stop the bus in a safe area I had the other student that was sitting with this little girl come up to the front to talk to me. I asked him what was wrong with her. He was quickly to answer, “She says her tummy hurts and she is going to throw up”. At that moment a couple of thing need to happen. The first thing is I tell him to take the trash can back to the seat with him so in case she does throw up it will go into the trash can and not the floor. Because what I have learned from the past is that if you don’t have a place for vomit to go....it will go everywhere! and if you have ever watched the movie “Stand by me” where the one actor is telling about the pie eating contest at the fair and the contestant vomits. Once one vomits then another and another until you have a “barforama”! Well with the bus being a enclosed environment this is not something you want to happen. If it did it was smell so bad that you wouldn’t get it out of the bus for many years unless you hose the inside of it out with pine sol!  So of course I defused the situation with the trash can! the next thing I wanted to do is get her home ASAP because I was worried about her. Lucky for me her house is close to one to my stops so I was able to get her home, honk the bus horn for mom to come out and get her before any damage was done. You see the regulations that we have for the buses doesn't allow us to have things on the bus like paper towels, Kleenex or other things that we may need when these bloody noses and other bodily fluid situations occur. So when they happen we are scrabbling to find things that we can use until we get to the school where we sent a student in or have the school send a teacher out. Either way we are stuck.  So you learn to be Macgyver it and use whatever you can find to stop the nose bleed or whatever the situation may be. 

Another reason I refer to myself as a bus mom is that there has been times when there has been very sports talented kids that don't always have the support from their parents or the parents have to work so they miss out on games and such. So I try to be there for them like when I can I will bid on a sports trip that they will be going to a game and I root them on. There was one time I had this girl that made it to the state basketball play offs and not one of her family members could make it, so I was able to take the trip. Once the trip was over I saw that there where some photographers there taking pictures of the games. there just so happened to be one of her at the free throw line that was amazing! so I bought it for her and gave it to her when we got back to the school. she was so grateful that from that point on when ever she went to a dance and got her Senior pictures she always gave me one. 

The one girl I will never forget about was the one we called “homeless”. Our district has a program that will transport a student that has to move out of district because of living and home situations. So we try to keep the student in the same school at least during this time in their lives. So I was driving out of district to pick this girl up who was a senior and she was living with her father in a trailer. Her father was a long haul driver so she was basically living on her own. She would tell me about having to wash her clothes in the bath tub and extra. I started making sure she had what she needed since her father was doing what he could to provide but she was a girl and we all know that girls need things Dad’s just don't understand about. What touched me most was she was also staying after school to make up credits that she had failed earlier in 9th and 10th grade so she could graduate with her class. She was determined to graduate high school because neither of her parents had. Then came the end of the year and prom rolled around. She wanted to go so bad but her father just couldn’t afford it and her boyfriend was also being raised by his grandparents. (just a side note...he used to ride my bus a few years back.) So I had these bus mom feels of helping these two young very driven students. I reached out to the other drivers and told them the story. I called in some favors from my friends that did hair and nails. When it was all said and done this couple had  prom tickets, tux & dress, dinner and pictures all paid for! The good news is that they both graduated. 

These are just a few reasons I call myself a “Bus Mom”