Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.

Are you joking that you don’t see the difference between a school bus and a metro bus?

Have you been on an MCPS school bus recently? In some ways, it's worse than a Metro bus.

Anonymous wrote:All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.

Are you joking that you don’t see the difference between a school bus and a metro bus?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.

How is a school bus different from a Metro bus? I would have thought this question answered itself.

You are putting a 5yr old on a bus with complete strangers for a 30min bus ride. It is probably worse than a Metro bus. At least a neighborhood school bus has friends/neighbors, bus patrols, and short 5-10min ride. Our bus driver has been the same from my 16yr old to my 6yr old. The K kids sit up front. 4 Patrols monitor the bus. 1 with K kids, and another every 3 rows back. We have never had issues. Minor ones get reasolved quick.

That has definitely not been our experience at all! We have been at our ES for 5 years and have had numerous different bus drivers. I'd say about 6. Sometimes we have a patrol, and sometimes we don't.

You're a much nicer person than I am, OP. 5th grader or not, if some kid were bullying my kid who is 6 years younger than him, I would not have been polite to the kid at all. And I'd have already spoken to the kids parents directly. Like on their doorstep.

But I'm a little nuts!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.

How is a school bus different from a Metro bus? I would have thought this question answered itself.

You are putting a 5yr old on a bus with complete strangers for a 30min bus ride. It is probably worse than a Metro bus. At least a neighborhood school bus has friends/neighbors, bus patrols, and short 5-10min ride. Our bus driver has been the same from my 16yr old to my 6yr old. The K kids sit up front. 4 Patrols monitor the bus. 1 with K kids, and another every 3 rows back. We have never had issues. Minor ones get reasolved quick.

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were little, the school system they were in had "assigned" seats on the bus. K up front, then 1st, etc. with the 5th graders in the back. I always thought this was smart because it kept the littles together and near the driver. Whenever you hear of a kid being left on the bus, it's always a K or a 1st grader who fell asleep towards the back of the bus.

This makes a lot of sense. Assigned seats would take away the privelege to hoard a certain seat.

When my kids were little, the school system they were in had "assigned" seats on the bus. K up front, then 1st, etc. with the 5th graders in the back. I always thought this was smart because it kept the littles together and near the driver. Whenever you hear of a kid being left on the bus, it's always a K or a 1st grader who fell asleep towards the back of the bus.

OP, sorry to hear that. My DD was bullied by a girl in her grade when she was 1st grader. DD was shy and small. She was pushed off the seat several times. I told DD to sit far away from that girl, but she kept harassing DD. She ate DD's snacks in the backpack, threw her jacket to trash dump, etc. We reported to DD's teacher and Nothing happened. Obviously, this girl had singled DD out. At the end of the school year, we moved to other cluster, I don't want DD to go to the same MS and HS with that bully.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.

How is a school bus different from a Metro bus? I would have thought this question answered itself.

I'm not the person who posted that but I think the school bus is worse than a Metro bus in some ways! At least the Metro buses are mostly adults, minding their own business.

The school bus has 5 year olds on it, with 11 year old Fifth Graders, all mixed together, with a SINGLE adult accompanying them.

Have you ever ridden a school bus? It's a madhouse. Ask someone who drives them.

Plus, the poor kid is stuck on the same bus every single day. With the same people.

At least when I ride a Metro Bus, I can change which bus I take. Or I can get off at a certain stop if I want to. OP's kid can't just get off that bus, and get on another one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.

How is a school bus different from a Metro bus? I would have thought this question answered itself.

I'm not the person who posted that but I think the school bus is worse than a Metro bus in some ways! At least the Metro buses are mostly adults, minding their own business.

The school bus has 5 year olds on it, with 11 year old Fifth Graders, all mixed together, with a SINGLE adult accompanying them.

Have you ever ridden a school bus? It's a madhouse. Ask someone who drives them.

I would file a report. Unacceptable.

5th grader needs to shape up or be pulled from taxpayer funded bussing program. HIS parents can take time off and drive his butt everyday, not you driving your child. The 9:25am starts are bad enough for us working parents. Now we have to accommodate bus bullies too?!?

Anonymous wrote:All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.

How is a school bus different from a Metro bus? I would have thought this question answered itself.

OP, I'm the one who actually dealt with bus bullying last year. DD, then a second-grader, was repeatedly pushed and shoved by a boy in her grade (apparently, the kids were all vying for certain seats in the back of the bus, so whenever my daughter happened to approach the seat first, the other child felt like he was entitled to it and tried to yank my child off the seat to take it himself. Bus patrols were virtually non-existent, and the driver paid no attention whatsoever.

Here's what I did. I approached the boy's mother (she was always there, waiving at her brat and sending him air-kisses, while he was on the bus 'asserting himself'. FWIW, my kid wasn't the only object of that kid's wrath, it's whoever happened to take that particular bus seat) and told her to watch her child, otherwise I will contact the school and make sure they deal with it. She was like; "Oh, they're just playing!". Apparently, the 'play' continued on the bus on the way back from school, also. Other parents also complained. At that point, I emailed DD's teacher, filled out the bullying form and personally brought it to school. According the my child, they were both talked to and told to sit away from each other - the bully was put behind the driver, and my kid and other kids were just taking their seats, as usual. The problem was solved.

OP, long story short, find out the 5th grader's name, complain in writing and see what happens. 5th graders should be bullying kindergarteners, boys shouldn't be yanking girls out of their seats - hell, no one should be yanking anyone out of their seats, in the adult world this is called battery! - and schools should be notified accordingly when stuff like that takes place.

Anonymous wrote:All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.

I think there's some merit to this. Definitely worth driving if you'd like your kid to be in this program.

Our ES bus is crowded and large and loud. Impossible for the bus driver to monitor the kids AND drive the bus in rush hour traffic (we have a late dismissal, so the kids don't get home until 4:30).

OP, your kid is 5. That's still really young, and it's already such a long day. Any way you can drive him?

All the reason I would never put my kid on a long bus ride with various kids of parents I don't know. He is 5. That is just scary.

OP, would you put him alone on a Metro bus to school? How is this any different?

You want him in the program, drive him yourself. You have no real clue what is going on, on that bus.