School Buses

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They have these in NYC and Philly also.

I was in private, Catholic school until my senior year in high school which by that time I had my own car. So, I was always taken to school before that by either my mother or carpool. Just one other girl in my carpool. I called her my "kind-of-little-sister" and she called me her "kind-of-big-sister".

I miss her. She'll be turning 21 this August. I remember when she was 8! sigh.

Preschool--parents took me to/from school on Transit, either a Flxible New Look (being phased out) or original RTS (being phased in).
Kindergarten--walked to school w/parents
Elementary School, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade and 2nd Grade take 2: Wayne school bus with Ford B700 Diesel...sometimes Mom would take me to school on transit (Flxible Metro B).
3-5 grade, Genesis bus of some sort (flat front)
6-8 Grade--walked to school w/o parents
9th Grade--City (well statewide transit agency) bus, Nova RTS
10-11-12 Grade--Walked to school mostly, took the RTS when it was convenient...

Also rode a Vandura cutaway for summer camp a couple summers...

College so far: usually take Amtrak between home and school (though there was one time I took 8 trains--Amtrak and 4 other transit agencies--and a bus home, 'cuz I could...), and ride Gillig Phantoms, Flxible Metro-Bs, Thomas Transitliners, some cutaways and soon Gillig Advantages (coming this fall!) around campus.

Wish I remembered more details about the school buses I rode as a kid, I used to remember them so well...

I took buses every year until HS. Thank god. from ages 5 to 8 I was in school that was not in my residential school district because we had moved after I was enrolled. My folks had to drive me to the old neighborhood I lived in, since the school district still thought I lived there, which was far from my home, to be bussed to school even further. I lived near downtown San Jose and was schooled in south San Jose.

In 3rd grade, when I was transferred, this time into the district my house was part of, I was bussed from my block where I lived and still traveled about 45 minutes to the other end of town (south San Jose again, but further west).

Coming home from school on the bus was more irritating for me with all the noisy devils talking alot. When a large chunk of them were dropped off at once, the bus got quieter and my headaches probably went away.
Assigned seating was necessary but sometimes I couldn't stand being next to some of the students.

Middle school bussing wasn't as far from home but it still sucked , since my middle school and the adjacent HS were next door to each other, students from both schools shared the same bus. Of course as the middle school student, I had to walk to the HS end and I ran my rear off before the HS bell rang so I can get a quick seat, assuming the yellow box was there in the first place, or else I tried to be one of the first ones on. Other than that, hooligans (mainly the middle school kids and HS froshes) got noisy and were animals. Maybe a stinkbomb ,some tagging and other stuff, but no fights though. A few incidents we had to have the bus stopped. Usually when fill-in drivers were behind the wheel the trouble was worse, just like sub teachers and classroom hijinks.
At least it wasn't like that altercation that happened last week here in the states. Did you see the news about it?

Our middle school had city busses do a shoot route for the school kids. The route they used actually passed my house (I felt the shaking), but the special service didn't really reach my home though. I am sure that I could've taken the city if I wanted to since the line would eventually continue to my house. But then it would've been longer.

Once I got to HS, I never had to ride the big bumblebee again and I was glad about it.

Oops! Double post, sorry

I only took busses sporadically when I was going to school.

For the breif time that I was in Kindergarten Brewer (Maine) was using GMC,s and Fords.

When I was in third and fourth Grade, (Grand Forks, ND) I took the City busses to school They were Ex NYC public Transit # 506,507,508 GMC 35' "Old Look" busses that were made in 1965, occaisionally one ex Minneapolis 45' GMC "Old Look from 1960, and very occaisionally one GMC schoolbus that was converted as a city bus.

In eighth grade, The City of Portland utilised 35' GMC New Look busses under contract with The Metro ( Portland's Public Transit system) that were either 1974 models with Glass Windows or 1977 models with Plexi Windows. They were all outfitted with flashing stoplights. --The Glass windowed models were better than the Plexi models because they were impervious to scratching and you could see outside.

I took the bus to school and back home, every day, until I started Highschool. It was a Nightmare for me. The other kids on my bus, would yell and scream. They made up stupid songs. They picked on the quieter kids, spreading rumours that they crapped themselves. They all rushed out of the bus at once when I had a cast on my Right Leg without letting me get out first, and I was in one of the Front Seats. The older kids stood in a line outside of the Gym and they waited for me to start talking. Whenever I spoke, they sang, "Shelby is a Cockney!" in the tune of 'Ring Around the Rosie'. There was one boy who picked on me all the time. He had a Ladybug in his hand. I told him that I wanted to see it, because I liked Ladybugs and I still do. He stepped on it, than he showed me the remains on the Sole of his Runner. The way that these kids acted, you would never know that Canadians are Pacifists. That was a little over 20 years ago.

From 5th to 6th grade I rode a bus to school.But the kids on there we're pricks and they screamed and laughed too much...almsot causing me to ahve a ensory overload!They would throe spitball at me and throw thier trash out on our drive way when they pulled up.Dirty lil b*****s...AH,I'M MAD!I DON'T LIKE BEING MAD!

SpaceCase

I wonder, how many AS children would have been better off to had been on a special needs bus. I say this for a couple of reasons:

A) Less students on the special needs bus, therefore less noise. Generally, a regular bus has about 70 - 80 students and a special needs bus has about 20.

B) With another adult on the bus whose responsibility is to watch the students, less chance of a bully not getting noticed or students behavior getting out of hand.


On my bus, The para and I are very knowledgable on what is happening. Very few rules are broken that one of us does not know about. It may get loud though, mainly because of the driver

I wonder if there are any thoughts on that.

It gets loud because of you?! Do you sing to them?

I think the option of special ed busses for ASDers is a wonderful idea but its not gonna happen because of finances. Although parents could try to push the idea as a support service.

My older child rode the "little bus" from 2 to 5th grade. It was great. In 6th he was supose to be back on the regular bus route but the schedulers made an error and scheduled a special ed bus for him. He rode it for more than half a year before they caught the mistake. I supose I should have told them but....

BeeBee

In many cases, yes, it gets loud because of my singing or other ideas to get the kids engaged (such at the ES students telling me to drive the bus into a garage or river).

In Rochester, the only thing that a parent needs to do to get their child on a special needs bus is prove that their child has a special need. I do not think cost is a consideration because the district contracts out the bus transporation services to Laidlaw and then tells them which children require a special needs bus and which ones do not. I do get many children whose special need is simply that the are at the Women's Shelter for a while or that I am the only bus in the area that services the school they go to. Each case is different and I have to react accordingly. My para from last year and I were discussing on Thursday which students will be hold overs from last year and whether we will have new students. She also warned me to expect change for the first week until things settle down (which I have a system in place to cope with).

In fact, there may be a possibility that I may get an AS child on my bus next year for the MS/HS route. I am not sure because I have seen/heard conflicting information.

Louis, I hope you do get the AS child. You can be a great role model/mentor for him or her.

The only reason acceptable for a special ed bus here is that the child is going to a "center based" program not in his or her home school or the child absolutely can not ride the regular bus...ie his wheel chair doesn't fit or something along those line.

I really don't see how the big busses can work! So many children, so much potential for bullying or problems.

BeeBee

I rode them when I was in grade 4-6. Old "Thomas" chassis with the upsweep front, New "Thomas" chassis with the downswept front, "Bluebird" chassis and sometimes "Wayne" bodies as well. The newer buses had International engines, the older ones were Ford and Chev. I remember the bus driver being a Ford guy and we used to pick on him about it.

I used to operate the red and yellow lights sometimes.

I've never been on a little bus. What's it like? I look at them when I'm in the big bus and wonder what it would be like on the little bus. I talked to this one boy named Marko a few times; he rides the little bus. I don't know what he has, but I suspect it's an ASD. We ate our lunches the same way, and he rocks a lot. He's obsessed with being fit and becoming an astronaut when he grows up, and he gave me his crackers. He's a nice kid, but I haven't talked to him since. I wonder if he thinks I'm a jerk because of that...but I'm going to look into working with him and the other "little-bus" kids for my senior project, just because they're fun and they're interesting.

Some people I know make fun of those kids, though, and it upsets me. What's so bad about them that they'd be made fun of? I think they're really nice kids. I guess it's just typical NT cruelty. *sigh* But it sorta makes me glad that I'm not in those classes, because I don't really want to get picked on. I don't know if I'd need those classes, anyhow, and my school's not good with things like that. Oh well.