Privatization or not?

if this was the first day of school,i Might understand,,, why not just have a UPC code reader at the door,,, if someone gets on/off and isnt scheduled at that time/place, it will sound an alarm,,kinda like at the grocery store,,,, also it would at Least record who gets on/off where,,,,,,,

DONOVAN doesn't show up for depositions,why would he comment even if he knew?

How does an 8 year old elementary student have more common sense than an adult bus driver? Thank God somebody was looking out for Tanisha. Makes one wonder who is hiring the bus drivers...

monkaboy - the answer to your comment is that GED-BOY LOVES TO HEAR HIMSELF YAK..... Have you never watched him at a Board Meeting - He yaks about stuff all the time he has no clue about - This was probably THE smartest thing that man has EVER done - shut his trap and admitted he knows nothing! FINALLY - maybe there is hope for him yet... but I seriously doubt it!

UPNORTH.........keep it up. You are a support personnel...you just keep it up. They have been wanting a scanning system to track the kids. First few weeks of school, the drivers are not familiar with the kids. You just keep it up....

#4 another uninformed comment.......the district has no idea who gets on the bus the first few weeks. No code reader. Each driver gets at least 175 new children. Can you memorize 175 faces and names in a few days? Can you then memorize what street they live at? Go ahead and blame the worker as usual

UPNORTH>>>>>> you really have my full attention now. You really need to stop blogging on the district computer. I know which computer it is............if you have nothing good to say about "your" fellow worker, stop.....don't critisize other district workers while you have nothing to do but blog on company time.

That poor little girl. She must have been so scared. At only five years of age, with all the excitement and confusion surrounding the first day of school, the school bus must have been scary, too.

Do the stops themselves have numbers? As in stop #1, stop #2, etc.? Perhaps labeling a five year old child's name tag with bus number and stop number would help until a more sophisticated system is up and running. It wouldn't take but a second for the driver to check the tags at each stop. There can't be that many kindergarten students on each bus for it to become too time consuming.

Also, moms and dads can practice - do a dry run - of bus procedure in terms of walking to the stop, driving by and pointing out the stop, and walking home. Maybe that can make the process seem more familiar to a five year old.

How does privatization solve this problem? You mean like hire Greyhound drivers? Would they know at which stops all the kids on their bus get off?
I fault the district, not necessarily the driver. There should be a better system, period.

I remember my kids' first days of school. I'm sending a **hug** to little Tanisha.

I think it is BOTH the bus driver & the parents fault.
First the Parent should make sure that the childs tag has the correct info on it!! (which should include not only the bus# BUT it should state which bus stop the child is to be dropped off at) If that was on the child's tag, THEN ONLY would it be the bus driver's fault.
The tag should have the bus#,bus stop, & emergency phone # to contact a parent.
This does not have to be a difficult situtation.
Most first graders have no clue on where they live, it is the parents responsibilty to have the correct info on the childs name tag.
As for the bus drivers, They should NOT be aloud to drop off a young child on the streets if there is not a parent there to recieve the child, in this case the child should be brought back to the school & the parent should have to go to the school to pick up there child. However... The school district does not care, They instruct their drivers to just leave a small child at a bus stop ALONE whether thier is a parent there or not.. We need change!!

Finally, lets clear the air on this one. This situation happens in almost every school district in the state. I know, because I haved worked for another district. The schools do not generate a list of those children who will actually ride the bus, in part because they no identication. The driver does not start the year with a list. A list can be made of all students in a target zone, but it would be entirely inaccurate, for it would list everyone whether they walk,have relocated, have parents driving or plan to ride the bus. Then imagine at every stop, the driver reading off a list of 100-125 names attempting to call a student that may or may not be on the bus, want to see driver road rage while they sit behind a bus on a busy road. Every district has this problem the first week or two of school. In most instances, the little kids, are driven by parents to school until they get familiar with their surroundings, and then go to the bus. The parents could help by having their little one familar with their bus stop Early on, the driver calls out the stop like a train conductor. Until an expensive scanner on the bues is installed, it is difficult to control for the first few weeks until the driver can visually identify the children. It is not just Collier that has this situation, it just about all of them. A few have scanners. Until then, I can tell you that so many little ones do not even know their stops, do not know their home phone# and can not help the driver identifying themselves or where they live. Get the monies for scanners, have the schools provide accurate rider lists and we can cut down on this problem. Please, stop blaming the driver.

Yes let’s blame the driver, the driver who my have an 89 passenger bus with 89 on it at one time! It takes a driver over two weeks to start remembering faces and names with stops!

According to Cherena Cruz, the school bus driver didn’t check who was on the bus in the morning, nor in the evening.
No bus driver checks off the names off every student that gets on and off the bus! A bus driver only has so much time that they can hold up traffic at any stop! If the district had drivers do that every day the routes would be much longer and the taxpayer would have to dish out more money! The district started looking into a scanning system a few years ago and that is as far as it went (LOOKING)! Remember school bus routes have been merged putting more students on one bus making it harder for the driver to remember who’s who and where they get off at!

#9 # 10, Thank you for your informed questions. The drivers are totally in the dark the first few weeks of school. The districts bus drivers are better trainned and have greater committment than any private paid hand. Absolutely do not fault that driver, Pre K and Kindergarten kids must have an adult at the stop. All other do not requirre it. The problem is that the first few weeks until the ID cards are issue and an accurate list is produced, the driver is left in a pickle. The best they can do is call out the stop as they approach, and they do. Hopefully, a child has been briefed by a parent and can recognize their stop by name and visually be aware as well. The child in the story was obviously confused because a driver would never just put a confused child off the bus. A scan system is very expensive, there are 300 buses. I suggest that each rider must inform the school before school starts of their intention to ride, at that time a student ride ID be issued that transportation can track and that information be with the driver from day one. Parents must also get involve and not assume that a driver knows each child and their stop.

This is a bigger problem then you realize too. I can tell you that last year my young child was 2 hours late getting off the Collier County school bus, because the bus driver could not read or speak ENGLISH very well. My child had his address on him & the bus driver was lost for 2 hours! with only my child on his bus, The bus driver would not answer his phone or his radio, I was instructed by the school transportation to keep trying to call the bus driver, they didn't know where they were.

Bus drivers need better pay! & should have to be able to read & speak english or this is going to keep happening!!

Another issue for the driver is the budget. The routes have been made more economically efficient to save money. No issue wwith that per say. It is becoming obvious that now many drivers are rushing to keep on time and in many cases are not. Rushing is not speeding, its a state on mind. I understand the real need to save money right now, my only fear is the rushing and the additional kids on some buses. The drivers in many cases do not even have time to stop for a few minutes to use a toilet now. When they do stop at a store or other facility, they become a few minutes late to stops and then parents are angry with them. Its all disheartening to be sure, yet, the district drivers care, they really do care about the children.

Also a lot of parents move and fail to update their address with the school and this has had students being put on wrong buses and or getting off at wrong stops and the bus driver has no way of knowing any of this the first few weeks of school!

#14, I understand what you are saying. There have been debates at the district level on this issue. The short answer is, the new safety manager for transportation is an excellent former military officer, no, not from West Point and not Rockford. He will ensure that drivers hired will be able to adequately communicate with the children. I understand that he is looking at drivers whose language skills are weak and may ask them to attend a class.

The school district bought a $300,000.00 GPS tracking system to track buses that has yet to work that I know of! If it is working only Thompson gets to use it! I could be wrong on the price it could be lower!

It is a bad situation to be sure. It is thisway the first week of school. When a bus makes a stop on a busy road, there are many many instances of drivers passing their red student lights. The longer a bus takes to unload the kids, the mote apt the idiots are to pass the bus endangering the children. The average person has no idea the stress factor for a driver. Clearly, the schools need to obtain more accurate info on the children planing to ride the bus. Id cards should be distributed before school starts and little ones need more help from the parents familarizing their little ones with their names, ph#'s and stop area.

I thank God I do not have to drive a school bus. I would rather dig ditches in the hot Florida sun.

#21.go away stupid

You have the wrong bus.........

and you are just attempting to compound that employees woes.....nothing more

in the end it's the parents who are responsible for the child.....I would have never relied on anyone to take care of my child at that age.....I don't know about everyone else but I would probably have had someone else with her on the first day to make sure she got off and on!

#24, time,date location, discription of operator. Vehicles involved,injuries, citation issued?

Guess!.....but I do and you do not

cowgirl, if you are making a hit and run allegation come on with it.......be factual, not say you think "maybe" that driver had an accident. Many people know the driver and your "maybe" comments are not helpful for them. All I will say is I do know what goes on in transportation every single day, I don't have to read it in the NDN

Again you know nothing, in fact, the same drivers do not drive the same buses everyday. The district utilizes 68 sub drivers and many are bounced route to route. You know nothing

and you need a life hot girl. Attacking an stating a poor man needs to be fired because you think "maybe" it is the same person. Ok Judge Judy hot girl......real logical thinking

since you are so informed, I remind you of the Collier School Board Policies on employee safety matters. The safe driver plan convenes a safety review comittee after a driver is involved in an accident or incident. A review is conducted and the driver is permitted to explain the accident. The findings are voted on by the comittee. points are assessed and should a driver reach the point level established by the elected school board, he or she maybe terminated.....its called "Due Process" you can't just fire somebody Judge Judy hot girl......perhaps you missed that legal class

I’ve had parents get angry when their child was not a loud to get off at a wrong stop so that they can go home with a friend, or who received a referral for getting on / off at a wrong stop without a boarding pass from the school stating it was alright to do so! I’ve had parents get angry that their child received a referral for riding the wrong bus to or from school without a boarding pass stating that it was approved by school to do so! Then the parent calls the school or transportation asking why didn’t the driver let my child on / off at this stop, or why did the driver give my child a referral for getting off at a stop that I told them they could get off at! Almost every time a parent or student try to go around the bus rules and get busted for it they try to blame the driver or have the fired for what they have done wrong.

Bagpiper,
I think it is an amazing bit of news that you revealed in post #8!
So that hate-spouting, teacher-basher upnorth is a district employee blogging from a district computer?
This is a violation of the computer use policy. He or she needs to be disciplined! A letter needs to go in his file right away! I've seen this done to teachers for much less.
If you really know something, please share!
If you are reluctant to press for disciplinary action, I'm sure there are many others who would do it if provided with the necessary information.

#37...again, you know nothing. You spue garbage about firing people without any knowledge of process, procedure policies nothing. Just opinion. Thats ok, blogs are for everyone, and the panties you talk about belong to you, they are too big for me

SmokinHotCowgirl, you don’t what you are talking about! Bagpiper is right on all counts on this matter!

UPNORTH knows now that he is observed. he needs to stop bashing his fellow employees, its "all" personal and hateful if you read the blog.

glass.....this is just a drama blogger who threw out an attack. Alittle knowledge is dangerous sometimes.......hopefully she will never have her name in the papers so thoughtless people can come and maker her life more miserable

My children have ridden the bus for 11 years, the bus drivers have been excellent. My middle schooler is always trying to get off at a different stop (without my permission) and the bus driver only allows this with a note. The only transportation problem I've had is when school employees dismissed a bus before my kids boarded and they were left at school without supervision (middle school.) Even the bus drivers with poor language skill knew which kids got off where. I never put my kids on the bus the first day of school for their entire elementary career.

Smokenhot you said this in your post, ‘omg!!! i think this is the same bus driver that I saw hit a parked car Tuesday’. That states that you don’t know!

43.......+-thank you so much for your sharing and honesty.......it is truly a difficult job at times. Although it does not pay well, many feel rewarded by caring for the childrens safety. Many drivers are housemoms themselves trying to pay bills. Many are former career people now in partial retirement, this district has at least at dozen former law enforcement officers and firemen. We never hear of the many good and noble deeds performed by them, only the gate crashers like Hottie cowgirl. That you again

glass.of course she doesn't know.......unless she was also present when the child got off the bus in the preserve and saw the driver.......garbage

and then knew the girl and knew she was at the wrong stop.....ifso, why didn't she tell the driver or better yet escort the child home, know its just more garbage

The parents that I am talking about never wrote a note or contacted the school to say that there child needed get on or off at a stop other than thier own! If a child gets off at a bus stop other then his own without a boarding pass from the school or at least a note from the parent with a phone number on it then the student is suppose receive a referral!

Sorry the little girl got dropped off at the wrong bus stop. BUT-----Parents should have prepared her a little better. She should have had her bus stop and her address and her phone number. You cannot blame the bus driver.

Parents should have done some dry runs. Who would put a little girl on the bus the first day. Too confusing. Most kids don't know where they live. We had the kids memorize phone numbers.

I have worked with many adults who didn't know their address or phone number.

I just got home and noticed that Bagpiper almost lost his mind! How can you get so upset over three words? Let me further explain myself to you, because I know how passionate you are when it comes to SUPPORT SERVICES! Articles such as this, only reinforces General T to privatize, all support personnel. You know it and so do I. On the other hand, I believe the need to bring back the monitors and put one on each bus. That person can read the list. LET THE BUS DRIVER CONCENTRATE ON DRIVING. Since Driving a bus is such a thankless job, because of the pay, and the split shift hours, that they have to work, they can only get retirees, moms, and people that can not speak or read english very well. I don't believe in scanners! I think it is another waste of money! Kids are not a can of vegtables at a supper market waiting to be check in and out through the use of a scanner. I notice you have nothing much to say when I am bashing those whining teachers, and I know why. What I say on those blogs might be mean, but over the years it was what I have observed. Thank you, for letting the cat out of the hat, teachers will now be logging off their computers when they are not there. :)

Does the child speak English, and if not does the bus driver speak Spanish?

#50 UPNORTH.......we all need to be aware that privatization is looming over all of us, maintenance included.........in this instance it was not the drivers fault. We need to keep this thing focused and not allow ground level employees bashed at every turn....you are very bright and we need your imput to save jobs

jean - the schools ASK you to let the children ride the bus on the first day to make it easier to get used to how all the students travel. It is less confusing than having people switching over after the first few days. It's less confusing for the teachers and the child.
My oldest child insisted on riding the bus anyway, and being a particularly sharp child(knows it all!), we allowed it. The first day of kindergarten we waited at the bus stop. Bus came, other kids got off, but not my child! It was the scariest moment of our lives. It was thundering and raining very hard and we stopped every bus, ran through streets to check all the other stops and ended up having to get the help of the police. It was absolutely horrible, nobody could find my baby! Eventually, word came in that a bus had returned to school with an extra child on board. Went down there so fast only to be told "you weren't at the bus stop!" YEAH RIGHT!!! Somebody had put my child on the WRONG bus leaving school DESPITE having the right tag, and DESPITE my child TELLING the person it was the wrong bus (my child knew the correct bus number), and being told to STAY on that bus even though my child argued with them and did tell them the correct bus number). I was so thankful that the driver did not make my child get off that bus and returned to school instead. And i'm so thankful that my child knew exactly where to get off the bus, and did not get off at the wrong place after realizing there was nobody else left on the bus. It was the worst, most traumatizing experience of my life. My baby was upset, but insisted on getting back on that bus the next day!!!!! I so not beleive in suing a school because that's taking money away from education. But I do think that the person involved should have been fired so that it never happened to somebody else. It's a horrible experience.

#51, an interesting blog. Very very often a child gets on a bus with little to no understanding of the language used in this country. The parents often are not using the common language in their homes. The children are left in the dark. The drivers are requirred to speak basic english to operate a school bus and there is no requirrement for them to be bilingual. In this area, a driver would need multiple languages if that was the case. Families coming here need to adapt so their children have a better chance.

#53 thank you for sharing........so often it is the driver who appears at fault. Drivers are the last on the ladder and so often, someonelse blunders, yet all anyone gets to see is the driver. Look at the enormous size of our buses. Realize that the driver makes three different runs with three totally different groups. It takes time to know them and even at that, students attempt to get off at wrong stops to hangout with friends. Everyday, parents call because their kid didn't come straight home, often they attempt to slip off the bus without the driver realizing, its all stressful.

#54 - Looks like tho mother speaks perfect English in the article.

Be advised that if a driver encounters"any" questions regarding the accuracy of a student's stop, he is always advised to be safe rather than sorry and return the child safely to the school. Now often this may take sometime because to turn back would mean the entire next group of children will be late getting home.

LOL, I mean 'the' mother!

I do think that the drivers should have the same routes each year. The first year of school, my child had the greatest bus driver you could ever meet. He quickly learnt every child by name and we couldn't have asked for more. Sadly, the following year, we got a different driver, who took a while learning about the children, then when he got the routine off to a tee, they switched drivers again! Thankfully, the next driver was also great - a lady who treated all the children like her own. BUT THEN THEY SWITCHED HER!!! That was really heartbreaking - all the kids and parents alike loved her, and she kew all the kids and would even have little treats for them at Christmas and other occassions. They replaced her with an absolute moron. He didn't care about anything and just let kids run wild. Complaints did not help, nobody did a thing even after other people's kids were coming home with bloody noses and complaining about it, they kept him! This year, we have yet another driver who is just horrible. I mean really horrible.

It is such a disappointment after having some great people who we had trust and full confidence in with our children, and had built a relationship with them. For a driver to have to change routes so often and relearn everything is not right. Keep the same driver on the same route and they'll remember new faces much more easily. It would also give us as parents much more confidence, and the children would be well looked after because the driver KNOWS them.

If this is this way now, I can only imagine how it will be if they outsource it. I guess the English-speaking requirement will be out the window for sure then!!

Drive a bus, read a map, look at a list with over a hundred names on it, and be bilingual to top it off? All that for 9 dollars an hour? Can you imagine a teacher doing this job? Maybe let one of those 38 thousand a year rookie teachers learn how to drive a bus! I think a teacher can pass the CDL test? I don't want to here about their 4 year college degree, Whoooooopie!

hear, not here.

Love,
Just another whining teacher

This happened to me when I was five, too (in Ohio). I ended up at a school bus stop in another county. The principal of my school was all over it and drove to get me and drove me home. My parents were worried, sure, but we didn't SUE ANYBODY over it.

Wonder if the problem would be solved if the County transported the kids door to door in cabs?

A prerequisite for CC School bus drivers is experience either in NASCAR racing or swamp buggy racing. I know this to be a fact, and so do you. Have you ever followed a school bus lately? I'm impressed with their speed and agility.

I think they should put cop lights on every school bus and have them flashing when on their routes. All traffic should pull over and stop when the bus approaches. This way they will be able to reduce the number of bus routes and drivers, saving taxpayers from increased taxes and giving the school district more money to pay higher administrative salaries.

good. You have no idea what it is like with 500 kids the first week of school and not knowing what bus to put them on. Poor planning by teh school district. They need to get their act together. They expect the teachers to do it all.

cabbage: people work. Please, get into the real world. Not everyone has enough money to work a 9-5 job where they can drop their child off just minutes before school starts and pick them up after school.

This isn't 1950.

upnorth: You whine more than ANYONE on the blogs. OMG, all you do is attack and whine about teachers. Let it go. Get some therapy. All that hate is not good...even blogging won't help you.

upnorth writes: "I don't want to here about their 4 year college degree, Whoooooopie!"

apparently you don't have a degree OR you're right...it didn't help you! LOL "here" and "degree"

YOU MADE MY DAY ONCE AGAIN. Thank you!!! You're so funny, upyours. :)

Thanks again for all of your tax dollars!!!!

One thing that would be a big help is if admin did a better job of keeping up on the list of students attending our schools, and if parents updated their addresses after they move! Some times people move and they move in a way that their child still goes to the same but need to be put on a different bus, and because they never updated their address the child gets put on the wrong bus!

I work in a school and when we do parent pick up, some of the K/1 students do not even know their own name! You call them and call them, they look at you, but do not respond. You do not know who they are, so you radio that you do not have the child (this is the first few weeks of school w/new students). Parents get frantic, and park their cars. They go into the front offie. The front office does an all call over all the radio's and intercoms. Students still do not answer but sit in the parent pick up line inside the media center. The front offic sends the parent in to us to "look" for thier child. The child goes running to them... "mommy" We all look like we are not able to do our jobs, but guess what, that parent was at fault. They did not teach their child their name! Parents do need to take some responsibility for their children. They need to teach them their name, address & bus stop. That is not ALL the schools job.

upnorth I see teachers on bus ramps everyday with hundreds of students all around them and you make it sound like an easy walk in the park ! If you had to do this you would most likely go home crying to mommy the first day and quit you’re job!

Lets break this down,

post#64- They expect teachers to do it all? Bagpiper, see the support you get from the teachers when it comes to support staff? Oh brother, we do expect teachers to do something though! When you were teaching, remember all that horn blowing, that was teachers blowing their horns at the bus drivers so they could get home. You remember the old saying how teachers beat the busses off the campus! Very few teachers were helping out BUS DRIVERS!....please they don't get paid enough to do that!
post#65- What do teachers know about working a real job? 9 to 5?
post#66- I am not whining, it is just simply stating facts! Also, blogging is cheap entertainment and therapy, you should know that!
post#67@60- thanks for correcting a mispelled word for me. Not everyone can be as flawless as a professional whiner, who considers themself a teacher!

"UPNORTH.........keep it up. You are a support personnel...you just keep it up. They have been wanting a scanning system to track the kids. First few weeks of school, the drivers are not familiar with the kids. You just keep it up....
#6 Posted by Bagpiper on August 30, 2008 at 7:42 a.m."

so is this how the Teamsters work Piper? obviously you (and apparently the Teamsters) are actively trying to identify posters.? "...you're being observered"? whatta ya all gonna do? bust some kneecaps?

"School district spokesman Joe Landon referred inquiries to Jeff Stauring, director of transportation for the district, who couldn’t be reached for comment"

piper you said the transportation department cut 20% from the bus drivers. i would think as a Union spokesperson you would be all over that. in another thread that was a good thing. now a 5 year old is left a mile from home in the rain.

who is this Jeff Stauring and why is there no accountability? the bus driver is just the grunt. where is management?

Finger pointing will not help. Everyone of the ground level people do their best. Remember that 20,000 kids get on the bus every morning. Its amazing more kids don't get lost. So many people are moving around with all the foreclosures its not hard to understand. A number of students were put on wrong buses at the schools because the child moved down the road to a relative. Some parents need to be more responsible, especially when a child does not have the skills to comunicate.

mimibuck....rain...what does rain have to do with anything? and yes the routes are condensed and yes it sucks....but, if a priavte hack company can offer savings to outsource, the district will look at it. We know this, so we work with management. Yes, I do know Upnorth and yes I would speak to him about his bashing of his fellow employee. Talk not knee break. You dislike unions and their members, thats always been so obvious. Now, since you like to pass judgement, how would you solve the problem with children on the first days?

so now the Teamsters are covering for management?

what? afraid to stir the soup? Thomson spanked you into submission?

piper, how about you tell us taxpayers how it works. would be very educational. and thats what the Public School System is all about right?

accountability. sunshine?

I think you know very well the issues mimbuck.....the UAW sat with GM and looked for ways to keep from laying off employees. The Teamsters submitted an insurance plan to save millions, and my info is the Board will pass it. That will save jobs , it is not submuitting to Thompson. The board can vote to privatize anything they want if they can be convinced. The district has the ability to route as they wish, provided it is safe and on time, that is a mangement right. Unfortunately, school bus driving is not always an 8 hr job.

and frankly Mimbuck, I am not afraid of an one, especially not a school adminstrator. Why would I be.... perhaps you are?

and I find it interesting you stay so completely annonymous, I all but have signed my name. Many on this blog know who I am, administrators as well. I always attempt to be truthful and informed....and that is how they know its me.....what about you? Hit and run....throw stones and hide your hands?

yes piper RAIN, to most humans rain makes an irritating situation more miserable. but to management types like you i guess that dosen't mean much.

as far as dealing with people, piper, i would approch it as "it takes as long as it takes". no pressure on the driver unless cronically late. but then it would be my reponsibility, as management, to make it do-able. including review of the route and possible re-training of employees. i mostly fire management. the "ground level" team will do the job if given the opportunity to succeed.

but, leaving a 5 year old without an idea of how to get home in the rain is inexcusable.

and no thanks piper, i like my kneecaps as i'm a runner.

"District Officials aware of the situation were not available for comment." , "School District spokesman, Joe Landon, referred the matter to the Director of Transportation", "District Transportation Director was not available for comment." "School Board Member Steve Donovon couldn't comment on the situation." WHO IN THE WORLD IS RUNNING THIS DISTRICT? Once again ladies and gentlemen further proof that the Administration of this district is not capable of communicating with the community nor do they assume any responsibility. Where were the Dixie Chicks and Mouth of the South, Michele LeBute? I'm sure this matter will be addressed, but the fact that no one is available for comment is unbelievable. Where were they? In the corporate world when you do not have the confidence of your staff nor the community, you become ineffective in your job which leads to your termination. By the way Mr Dithers or Withers can you again say, LAW SUIT???
He needs to go as well.
How long must Collier County suffer before Gov. Christ steps in?

mimibuck since you think driving a bus is so easy put your application in and see how well you do. See if you can remember the faces and names of every student and in some cases over 20 bus stops to boot! By all means come on down and show use a better way! The way I read the story is that this student had not road the bus to or from school in the two weeks that school has been open! What did the parent do to make sure that her child got off the bus in the right place other then talking to the bus driver! And did she really talk to that driver at all as said! If she did talk to that driver it will have been recorded by the onboard camera and mic!

Just so everyone knows most of the buses have three cameras and one points right out the bus door, the buses also have a microphone right over the driver’s head that records everything that is said! This is all recorded to a computer hard drive! That video will be reviewed!

couldn't pay the bills on those wages glassman.

do you think i've been against the drivers?

how do you do it? got a significant other that pays the bills?

Can anyone that post on this blog prove that this driver did something knowingly wrong or even talked to this woman? The answer is no!

My wife and I own a small business plus I any other work I can get I take it!I lift a good psying because of stress! I have a young son that I need to be around for!

correction to my last post!

My wife and I own a small business plus any other work I can get I take it! I lift a good paying job because of stress! I have a young son that I need to be around for

glassman you have said that all was recorded. one would think management would release this info to the NDN. if all is as you and piper have said. remember Sunshine? it did happen friday. isn't management on a yearly contract, not hourly?

i would certainly want my company clear on this by monday. especially delivering children, not just products.

glassman so you left a good paying job to drive a school bus. hey i have no problem with that. thank you for your service. but this isn't about you or me. or piper, i really don't care who you are or who you know.

The sunshine law has nothing to do with this that is for elected offices! This is open to the public after the police get involved and request the video! The police are the ones that release it to the public!

so glassman you are now saying that it is a CCSO matter and that CCPS management cannot be preemptive in this situation?

Mimibuck, children get dropped in the rain all the time. And.... you can not release a video to the press if other children are seen in the video. What is the point ? The child got up out of the seat and got off with others. Your game is to just irritate...you have no stake in any of this

glass.......this mimibuck is not serious,....let it go

All that I am saying on the video part is that videos generally do not get released to the pubic by the school! Generally the only ones that can view the bus video are the person filing the complaint, the driver, the driver’s supervisors, and the safety officer, the director of transportation and up to Dr. Thompson! Also the person filing the complaint will only get the part of the video that pertains to them! The news can report on this but they can’t come and just demand video and get it!If the police don't release it, it doesn't get released

I'm done on this!

And the point is...seeing a video of a child exiting a bus at the wrong stop is pointless. Nothing more can be learned. As a citizen, we have privacy rights, employee or not. The reasonable expectation of privacy exsists. No crime was committed and therefore no investigation was necessary that would exceed ones expectation of privacy in this issue

Man it took me a long time to read this conversation.

As for who chincieone is you can know , someone accused me of being cheep so I ran with it . I became chincieone.

Bagpiper your last post said it all!

Parents must need money - Sugar happends - She is safe - Lets move on!!

It is clearly an act of ignorance on the part of the bus driver to allow a young girl to stand alone at the wrong bus stop!

I drive my kids to school!

When parents ask me why not the bus?

I tell them point blank about Collier County's bussing system. I tell them about a girl on the bus MOLESTED 60 times at least by the bus driver, I tell them about fights on the bus, I tell them about other students molesting fellow students on the WAY TO MIDDLE SCHOOL. There are no cameras to watch your child, and the bus driver is watching the road, NOT YOUR KID!

U place your kid on the bus, U take a HUGE risk in Collier County that your child could be molested, lost, or abused in some manner.

Joe Landon will do whatever he can in his power to blatantly keep this information as nonpublic as possible.

Parents who care about their kids should drive them or walk them to school.

JUST SAY NO TO THE BUS!

Im sorry, but I think 5 is a little young to be on a bus on the first day of school. You wouldnt believe the number of parents who let kids that are 5 & 6 WALK several blocks, ALONE to and from school because they are too close for busing. If the parent has to work and cant get the child to the school, put them in a before/after school program. It might cost you some money, but isnt your childs safety worth it? There are alot of kindergarden children who cant even speak English, or know very little. Same goes for some of the drivers. You dont need to be a rocket scientist to drive a school bus.

If my child didnt exit the bus, I would stop the bus to see if he or she was still on. Or continue to the next stop and then ask. Thats not hard to do...

must be some BIG school buses in FL - to hold 125 children!

Where I come from - you figure it out - the BUS DRIVER does a DRY run - AND calls each child on his/her list and tells them what time to expect to be picked up.

I am not saying "things" don't happen - but this is certainly an eye opener for a better system!

EZ 2 blame the parents when the system in Collier County stinks, right mdiscrabs and undrescore?

It's EZ to say parents R at fault...when new parents who just moved here HAVE NO IDEA what really goes on while their kid is in on the bus.

Drive YOUR KIDS to school.

Forget about the bus! Drive your kids, walk your kids, bike your kids 2 school!

Drivers are watching the road and not your child!

What a horrible experience for the child and parents. Good thing a fellow student who was only 8 stepped in and saved the day.
It is too bad that children are riding busses at this young age. The more I see and hear of this school system, the more I see it in horrible shape.

If our kids were school aged, I would find a way to send them to a private school or home school them.

Our tax money is being squandered by this system.

I fully agree with chief04. There are too many predators out and about these days. These young children are way too vulnerable to be boarding a bus alone or walking alone.

BTV...U R so right!

Please nominate the 8 year old 4 the Do the Right Thing Award with the CCSO!

Meanwhile, Wierdo Withers and Dr. Wannabe Ph.D. T are planning ways of settling out of court as I type this to you.

WAY TO GO CCPS!

Way to take care of kids in Collier County!

Re comment #3 - "DONOVAN doesn't show up for depositions,why would he comment even if he knew?"

----------------
How true!

BTW, did Thompson ever bother "walking all the bus routes" this past summer, as he said he would do in a previous issue of this newspaper? Just asking what our stupidintendent is up to these days...

http://www.dennisthompsonbackgroundqu...

flcertteach....Dr. T walks to his mercedes and back again.

That's it.

He doesn't care about children in public schools here.

It's obvious from the lost five year old!

I hope the parents wise up and GO AFTER THOMPSON!