Rocky View Schools (RVS) Superintendent Greg Bass said the division takes the safety of students on school buses seriously.
The comment was made following an incident on March 14, which raised the ire of a local parent.
Irricana resident Andrew Carr said his seven-year-old daughter had her hair cut and her life threatened by a kindergarten student riding the bus, en route home from Ecole Airdrie Elementary School.
“I was furious about this,” he said, adding RVS staff told him the student was suspended from the bus for three days.
Carr questioned whether the punishment fit the crime and if his daughter was safe on the bus.
“If this is policy that we only give these kids a slap on the wrist, I see a fundamental flaw in school policies,” he said.
RVS Trustee Norma Lang said school bus incidents fall under the same discipline policies as those that happen in school.
“We care about all of our kids, their safety and well being,” she said.
Bass said school bus incidents are “fairly rare.”
“We transport 9,600 of our own students and 3,500 Calgary Catholic (students),” he said. “We are the second-largest transporter in the province on a daily basis. When you look at it from that context, we don’t really have a number of issues on the school bus.”
Bass admitted about 65 per cent of students surveyed in the last couple of years on whether they feel good about their bus-riding experience indicated they had a good experience. He said the divisions is hoping to increase that number to somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent.
Bass said the board is currently implementing an action plan focused on helping schools promote appropriate bus behaviour.
“You have upwards of 50 students unsupervised for up to an hour, and the bus driver has to focus on the road,” he said. “That action plan is really focused on helping schools focus in on those behaviours, creating self awareness and self-check mechanisms.”
Bass said work began on the action plan last year. He said the program will soon be rolled out to all schools and will be similar to other character development programs already in place.
When asked about the level of discipline meted our for inappropriate behaviour, Bass said past history plays a role in the severity of discipline handed out to students.
He said discipline is handled the same whether an incident happens on the school or on an RVS bus.
“(RVS) embraces that responsibility as part of the school day and therefore … misbehaviour needs to be dealt with,” he said.
“Whenever there are some serious incidents, parents often want to know what the other individual’s consequences are and that is really not appropriate.”
Bass said students with troubling behaviour are assessed by RVS staff to make sure they pose no threat to other students as part of the board’s discipline procedures.
“We have a pretty strong system,” said Bass. “We are not perfect, but we don’t have … issues daily, we are pretty good that way.”
