This comments section makes me sick. Kids are fucking kids. They don't "behave"— they're just trying to enjoy life, they're just reacting how they know, and they're still learning. You don't dump five-year-olds on the side of the road where they almost get hit by cars (that was part of the news article).
This also sounds like a great way to go to prison with a lot of parents extremely angry at you.
Maybe. A neighborhood bully went after me with a makeshift whip around that age. I lost my boot in the snow trying to run away fast enough. Most people are fine as you say. Some...are just broken.
You don’t dump five-year-olds on the side of the road
Strongly agree here. I don't care what they were doing; they're still kids in need of adult supervision.
Separate conversation: folks we rely on don't have the support or tools to do their jobs safely and sanely. Kids are violent and beyond "unruly".
I'm not suggesting I have an answer, I'm not suggesting dumping them was appropriate. I'm not suggesting "things were better in the good old days".
I am suggesting something has evolved in society, (many suggest norms degraded with COVID isolation, maybe. Discuss.) to make these provider's jobs harder, and many are so close to snapping we as society should recognize it, and help them.
While not at the side of the road, where I'm from bus drivers have the right to throw anyone out at a bus station because there aren't school buses per se.
Although this is reserved for particularly rowdy individuals, I can't imagine any bus driver emptying the entire bus. Definitely shitty & possibly dangerous thing to do.
You have a fundamental lack of understanding of child development. This is why we were abused as kids.
For so many goddamned reasons— especially if you don't know anything about the kids— the word "behave" in this usage should not be allowed in adult usage. All it does is perpetuate harmful and false beliefs about children.
Yeah this wasn't how the bus driver should've behaved. Perhaps decline driving them or drop them off in a safer location. They were 5 years old for crying out loud.
At the same time, there is clearly a need to show that actions have consequences and that if you break rules you're punished for it. If the driver pulled into an abandoned parking lot and made them deboard in nice weather and stand there for 15 minutes before resuming, that would be fair. As adults it's on us to guide children, and that means reinforcing good actions and discouraging bad actions -- escalating to punishment if they keep acting out.
I agree with you that the person you're responding to is being absurd. Punishment has to be carefully done. You need to create a situation that is undesirable but has absolutely no danger to their health nor wellbeing. Is that difficult? Yes. But that's why we're the adults.
The school should have worked with the driver much earlier to address the situation, before it escalated to this point. Even adults can only take so much, but it's still on us to not lose control.