School Bus Driver Hits 7-Year-Old With ADHD For Kicking The Back Of His Seat
Bad behavior on a school bus can be dangerous, but that doesn't give a driver the right to physically punish a student.
Inside Creative House / Shutterstock A lot of strange things can happen on school buses, where children are largely unsupervised and thrown together regardless of grade. Bus drivers, who must operate the bus and keep kids’ behavior in check as much as possible, are just doing their best.
One bus driver took things too far, however, when he hit a first grader who was kicking the back of his seat.
A 7-year-old was physically punished after kicking her bus driver’s seat.
A concerned mom took to Reddit to ask for advice after her daughter came home from school with a disturbing story.
“My daughter is seven and in the first grade,” she said. “She and her brother (eight) would ride the bus home after school. I drive them in the morning.”
This mom offered some background information on her daughter so readers could better understand the situation.
“At the school’s request for us to see a doctor to get her a diagnosis … she has been diagnosed with ADHD/ODD and [an] anxiety disorder,” she shared. “She has big emotions and doesn’t know how to deal with them.”
Apparently, this has caused some problems on the bus before. “She still [had] a couple of minor issues this year while [on] the bus ride home,” she said. “In fact, just two weeks ago, I had to leave work and go pick her up because she got ‘kicked off’ the bus.”
“So, last week, [on] Friday, I happened to be home that day when my kids got home, and when my daughter came in, she said, ‘Mom, my friend wants to talk to you.’ I told her it would have to wait for just a sec because I was in the middle of something,” she recounted.
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“[I] asked my daughter what she needed, and my daughter said, ‘My bus driver hit me,’” she wrote.
The mother was understandably shocked by what she heard. “I wasn’t getting much from my daughter as to what had happened, so I went outside to talk to her friend,” she said. “She is our neighbor, and she is in the fifth grade, so I asked her what had happened.”
The little girl’s story was horrifying, to say the least. “She told me that my daughter was mad because … she was again the only kid on the bus that day to have an assigned seat. She wanted to sit with her friend, and the driver told her no … I guess my daughter was kicking the bus driver’s seat, and he went over to my daughter and forcefully sat her [down], pushed her down into her seat and proceeded to pin her down in her seat by her shoulders and then slapped her leg as he was telling her to not ever kick his seat again,” she said.
This mom made multiple calls to both her daughter’s school and the bus company. All has proved fruitless, which has the mother worried.
“Thursday is the last day of school before summer break, and I feel like they intentionally made things drag out until then so it would be swept under the rug,” she explained.
It’s important to address student misbehavior on school buses in an appropriate way.
We Are Teachers discussed some of the behavior problems that can occur on school buses and how to best address them.
“School bus behavior issues go beyond disrespect,” they pointed out. “They also create a safety hazard for everyone on board.”
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We Are Teachers said that school bus drivers must be listened to, both by students and by administrators looking to improve the bus experience. However, that does not give one the right to assault a student.
A bus driver cannot hit a child for any reason, including misbehavior. This man was not justified in his actions, and the little girl's mom should continue to pursue both the bus company and the school over the incident.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.