Marilyn Mueller

Well, I went in to work before the afternoon bus run yesterday and reviewed the video tape of the day before’s bus ride.  I saw who left the “offering” and wrote her up for a discipline referral.  As far as I can tell, that didn’t do anything but make her angry.

I am now making her sit in the front row seat “until further notice,” which has REALLY made her angry.  She has threatened me with “You’ll be sorry.”  I’m not quite sure what she thinks she can do to make me “sorry.”

And all of the kids were very upset that I pulled over to do the seat assignment chart.  Most of them claimed that I was making them late for work, and they all threatened to call my boss and complain to him and get me fired.

After the bus run, when I went back into the office, I was met with a “cold shoulder” type of greeting, so I am guessing some students did complain and that the boss is going to pull the tape to see just how unreasonably mean I was.

All in all, I think I earned my pay yesterday.

A few days ago I was informed by my boss that all of the buses are required to have seating assignment charts.  I was told that I had to have a chart filled in and turned in by the end of the week.

I haven’t driven my bus long enough for me to know the names of all of the students that ride.  So, for the past two days I have asked the students to pick out their own seats (they are high school students and I don’t want to ASSIGN them seats) and to print their first and last names on the chart.  That way they can pick out their own seats, and the chart will get filled in.

Well, Monday resulted in a lot of people just putting in their initials.  Checking my list of student names, most of the initials did not match up to any of their names.  So, I tried it again Tuesday.  I explained that this was not my idea, it is required by the school board, and I really needed them to print their REAL names on the chart.

Well, when the chart was returned to me, I was very surprised to learn that both Bob the Builder and Jesus Christ rides my bus!  Neither of THOSE names are on my list of students!  And, at the end of the bus run, I was disgusted to see one of the students, in an act of passive-aggression, left an “offering” in the middle of the aisle – an empty, used tampon applicator!

So, today I am going to review the video tape of yesterday’s bus run to try to find which student left the “offering” so I can take some kind of disciplinary action.  That was totally uncalled for!  And, after we load the bus in the afternoon at the school, I am going to have to pull the bus off the road, into the armory parking lot and go from seat to seat MYSELF and ask each student “What is your name” and then print it on my chart MYSELF.

They want to be difficult, then I am going to have to be tough.  I tried being nice, but apparently nice isn’t going to work with these kids.  It’s really too bad.