Iqaluit school bus drivers abused on ‘daily’ basis: District education authority
Chairperson Nicole Giles planning radio discussion on how to resolve issue
Iqaluit’s district education authority and school bus company are asking parents to talk to their kids about unruly behaviour. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
School bus drivers and monitors in Iqaluit are getting “daily” abuse from students, says a representative with the local school authority, and the problem is only getting worse.
Nicole Giles, the chairperson of the Iqaluit DEA, says she’s worried about bus drivers and monitors quitting because of the issue.
“It’s pretty regular that the bus drivers get yelled at, and they get yelled at not only by children, but also by parents, so that’s really stressful,” she said.
“The bus drivers are not being respected, they are not being listened to and they are being treated as if they are lesser, which is just insane.”
Giles described a few examples of incidents.
In one example, a bus driver was hit in the head by a student while driving. In another, a student knocked a bus monitor’s hearing aid out of their ear. There was also an incident where a student let off a fire extinguisher on a bus.
When bus drivers, alone, are forced to manage these incidents, it poses a safety risk for everyone on board, said Mike Wilkins, the manager of R.L. Hanson Construction Ltd., the company that runs the school bus service in Iqaluit.
Wilkins has been driving school buses in Iqaluit for the past 15 years and knows what goes on behind the driver’s seat.
In addition to violence and vandalism, the company flagged alcohol consumption and vaping as issues occurring on school buses.
“It’s understandable that kids sometimes get a little amped up and they’d like to burn off some energy and we would like for them to look at the bus atmosphere as similar to being in the school where they’re following the guidelines that they’re supposed to do in school,” Wilkins said.
“There’s always lots happening and we’d like [the drivers’] attention to be on the road and safe operation of the vehicle as opposed to trying to maintain the activities going on inside the bus.”
Wilkins said these incidents have prompted his company to send a letter to parents.
The Department of Education is aware of the issue, said spokesperson Kim Foster.
Foster identified six reported incidents. However, Wilkins said he believes that number is likely much higher because drivers don’t always want to go through the process of filing reports.
The Department of Education deals with these incidents on a case-by-case basis, Foster said.
R.L. Hanson Construction can report incidents to the school, and the two sides discuss possible disciplinary action.
“Behaviour is addressed via a conversation with the student and family member and, if warranted, the student loses bus privileges for the time being,” Foster said.
“When it is more of a whole bus issue, all students are addressed at the same time to remind them of expectations.”
Wilkins mentioned that some students have been suspended from bus services for days, weeks or months at a time.
Bus drivers won’t kick a student off the bus, he said, but they often have to stop driving until the behaviour cools down. When that happens, the students and drivers might be late getting where they need to go.
Wilkins said that as far as he’s aware, there haven’t been any incidents that have required RCMP intervention.
A Nunavut RCMP spokesperson said in an email that they are not aware of any incidents on school buses police have had to respond to.
Riding the bus is a privilege, Wilkins said. When kids lose that privilege, parents are forced to find new arrangements to get their kids to school.
“Everybody thinks their kid can do no wrong, but as parents, we have to understand that when they’re out of our sight, sometimes they can get a little unruly,” he said.
Giles, with the school authority, said she wants the community to come together to resolve the issue. She and staff from R.L. Hanson Construction are planning to host a radio discussion about how to prevent violence on school buses. Details for this have not yet been confirmed, she said.
Ultimately, Giles said she hopes the conversation will lead to a better outcome for everyone, including bus staff, parents and kids – especially for the kids who are not causing trouble.
“We are so good at coming together and making good things happen and, you know, I have such faith in this community, and I really think that we, together, can fix this issue,” Giles said.
“I really hope that parents take my advice to heart and have a word with their children.”
Get hit on head, stop bus, call police, wait for police to remove offender from bus and ensure your safety, file WSCC paperwork documenting the violent workplace trauma.
Better yet hit back!
That’s a paddling.
Stop the bus for a week or two and teach the parents and children that yelling and shouting to bus driver is inappropriate
No doubt the parents who raised kids that drink liquor on the school bus and assault the driver, will snap into Good Parent Mode the second their child has to walk to school.
Dash cam, looking out and in the bus
And let parents log on to see their little darlings in action.
Do you want other parents or anybody watching your ‘little darlings’ on camera? “Guess what you-know-who’s kid did yesterday…”
I was a kid and I have 2 boys. I know that I could be a crud and my boys weren’t always angels. My parents dealt with me properly using the values they were taught by their families. My father went to residential school and had problems with alcohol and stuff like that but he still was able to give me the proper upbringing with the help of our Inuit community (this included my great-grandparents who were forcibly relocated from their nomadic ways to a community, my grandparents who had their children taken from them to attend residential school, and my aunts and uncles who all went to residential school) and I dealt with my boys properly by using what they taught me and I relied on my father, until he passed last year, and my Inuit family for their insight. What we have today are some parents who don’t deal with their kids properly at all, especially those who live in places like Iqaluit. My sons generation don’t put enough of our Inuit values in how they raise their kids and they haven’t learned any other way to properly raise their children. If they don’t want to use their traditional ways they need to find a way to properly raise them. There needs to be respect for others in the world PERIOD. Especially for those who are there to help or do work for you, like the bus drivers who are driving you to and from school. Parents also need to accept that their children can be cruds and that if they are told by the bus driver that they did something, they probably have and that they need to be taught that it is wrong. Respect is always a value that is cherished in any tradition whether it is in our Inuit ways or not so it should be taught to all, no matter what and no matter where. I hope that the radio discussion does something and that people will join and actually participate.
Agreed 100%. But what happens when asking people and their kids works for some but not all? Cut out their bus privileges (and it is a privilege)? That would solve one problem but would it create another — parents not bothering to get their kids to school? Attendance is already a big problem.
Cut off their wifi at home
Riding a bus to school should be a privilege that can be taken away. By making the parents of these kids get them to and from school after this abhorrent treatment forces them to be stakeholders in their kid’s behaviour.
School isn’t a personal daycare, teachers aren’t a personal babysitter, and those busses aren’t a personal driver. This nonsense begins at home, it can end there too. Or it can end somewhere else at some other time to their kid’s and community’s detriment. Reign in your monsters, please.
Yikes! Seems like the kids seeing their parents yell at the bus staff, the kids will follow this behaviour!
Parents come on, YOU ARE AN ADULT. Behave accordingly, kids follow actions and behaviours. Do better. Next time get the police involved, kicking a persons hearing aid off??! Wow. Why so violent. This younger generation of parents are failing their kids and families.
Thank goodness the company is continuing their service, even though it would be understandable not to.
Kudos to the company for continuing their service.
Let them walk to school.
Uphill, both ways, in winter, barefoot, under a blazing sun, the way we did it when I was a whipper snapper – that’ll learn ’em.
Let them wear boots, coat, hat and mitts please. Aside from the smallest kids everyone who is properly dressed and does not have a disability should be able to walk to school. Our town is small.
We need bus drivers like we had in the 80’s. You misbehaved, you got picked up off the ground by your ears. Kids have no fear or anyone these days.
How about hiring private Truant officers ?…. they have the same power as the by laws or cops…
Yes to stopping the bus and calling the police and No to hitting back. The school, the bus service and the police then need to cooperate. Suggested partial solution. Have the police take the miscreants away to be put in a cell for the rest of the day. Then have the parents come and get a talking to, and to collect the varmint. Briefly, you can’t raise a responsible and self-reliant adult without learning self-control in childhood. That may mean consequences for misbehaviour in childhood. Responsible discipline and structure go along with the love that shows you care.
This is why we made sure that our kids never rode the bus.
Vigorous phy ed. is needed to settled. Kids get fed up with to much time of sitting and and thinking.
God forbid that students are actually expected to sit and think in school Phy ed
Make them clean the bathrooms to get their bus-riding privilege’s back.
Children should be taught to clean up after themselves. Having a janitor in a school is a crazy thing as there are hundreds of kids who can take turn cleaning their space and the school. A lot can be learned from children from other countries and cultures in regards to this.
Good lesson for building a sense of community. Badly needed among youth in Nunavut.
Nunavut needs a Juvenile Detention Center for kids like that. Set them straight,.
These kids acting violently and disrespectfully after their parents setting such good examples for them by not drinking and smoking in excess, being respectful, not being violent, and constantly being at work on time.
Tea and Bannock because Obed doesn’t know Inuktitut words like “palauqaq”