Children are walking miles to school because injuries and bullying on the school bus is leaving them feeling unsafe, parents say.
More than 100 people have signed a new petition calling for better staffing and rules on Brighton and Hove school buses.
Worried parents say some children are taking long walks to school instead of travelling by bus because of fighting.
Brighton and Hove Buses say they work closely with schools and the police to manage these situations.
The petition states that: “When fights break out the drivers seem to have no clear procedure to follow and only seem to stop the bus once police or ambulance are needed.
“Currently action is retrospective, dealt with by the school after the fact with CCTV footage handed over by the bus company, but students know that the bus bans threatened by school rules rarely happen and by then the damage has been done.
“Drivers either need to be given trained support staff, or clear guidance to follow, that enables them to act at the first inkling that there is trouble on the bus.
“Students need to feel that if they are in trouble and need help, there is somebody that will have the power to manage the situation.”
Alleged incidents include hitting, pushing, spitting, chasing, hair pulling, and injuries resulting from these incidents.
Currently, 133 people have signed the petition calling for improvements to school bus arrangements.
Nick Hill, commercial director at Brighton and Hove Buses said: “We believe that everyone has the right to travel safely and with ease with us.
“All our buses have CCTV which can be used as evidence in such situations, while our drivers can summon assistance using the radio system.
“We take any incidents seriously and work very closely with the schools involved and the police to manage situations such as this and prevent them from happening in the future.”
The new chair of the council’s transport committee, Councillor Trevor Muten, said: “We expect all pupils travelling to school on public transport to behave reasonably and treat drivers, other travellers and members of the public with courtesy and consideration.
“Any unacceptable behaviour by pupils will be dealt with through their school’s disciplinary procedures.
“Parents and pupils should also know that bad behaviour can result in the pupil losing their entitlement to travel on a particular route.
“Our schools work hard to ensure their pupils behave well on public transport and elsewhere, and I’m sure they will continue to remind their communities of the importance of this.”
I certainly agree with the mentality that Bus Drivers are not responsible for keeping law and order on buses, and if it truly was getting that bad, perhaps the schools should consider having a warden ride the bus as a deterrent.
When buses had conductors, they usually kept order.
It’s a human rights issue. Have any councillors ridden on a school service bus? It can be horrific. There is NO supervision. I really feel sorry for some of the kids subjected to a daily tirade of abuse from others. School staff should be paid to go on the buses or older children should act as prefects. The drivers can’t drive and at the same time look after 50 children.
Human Rights is a bit much. Also, who feels the need to ride the school bus instead of waiting the 90-120 seconds for the normal bus?
Hmm, except normal buses don’t serve schools or are the normal service bus anyway meaning there isn’t another bus in 2 minutes.
Ignoring the ungrammatical sentence for a moment, to further iterate, most bus routes to schools are on mainline routes, and a quick look at a bus schedule proves that you don’t have to wait long for a non-school bus, be that a specific bus that serves a school, or a bus that isn’t at a time that is suitable for school starting times.