Wednesday 19 December 2018

Finding Some Backbone At Last...

The driver of the 827 First Bus service, which goes between Westcliff High School and Canvey, ordered pupils from St Thomas More and Westcliff schools to leave the bus on Kenneth Road in Benfleet. 
Good!

But wait...! 'My kid has a disability!' (don't they always?)...
Trevor Wood, who lives on Canvey, said his 11-year-old son, who lives with autism, was left by the road as a result of other students misbehaving (Ed: Uh huh..), and became distressed because he didn’t know where he was.
Mr Wood said: “It’s an unbelievable action on the driver’s behalf, ordering most of the schoolchildren off the bus when a few are causing trouble.
“I can appreciate the driver having to deal with misbehaviour and taking appropriate actions, but to order off innocent bystanders when they may not know where they are is completely unacceptable.”
But instead of cringing before this waving of the entitlement flag, as usual, the bus management decided to stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood and imitate the actions of the tiger:
Dan Worley, Operations Manager at First Hadleigh, has called on the schools to crack down on student behaviour.
He said: “Earlier on in the journey the pupils were asked by the driver and one of our supervisors to behave but they refused.
“This type of action is not what I would expect any our drivers to do under any circumstances, as we have an obligation to keep all passengers safe whilst travelling from A to B on our services.
However, we need this bad behaviour to stop.
“On a regular basis we are experiencing students swinging from the interior handrails, playing football upstairs on the top deck, and being aggressive towards each other.
“All these incidents have been reported to the schools.
“If this activity continues, I will need to seriously consider the future of serving the schools unless there is supervision provided by each establishment.
Other passengers should not have to endure this activity when using the bus to travel.
Bravo! Well done! More of this please! Especially from you, c2c! The behaviour of the Southend pupils is appalling, and you do nothing about it.
The Echo approached Westcliff High School for Boys and St Thomas More School for comment, but they did not respond.
They never do. Except to claim that the actions of their 'students' are not their responsibility off school premises.

3 comments:

Bloke in Germany said...

Not their responsibility? Back in my day (yes, I know) anything we did on the way to or from school or any other time while in uniform was unquestionably a disciplinary matter for the school.

Teachers would occasionally hang around at strategic spots (shops, underpasses, etc) looking for miscreants. Rumour was, the head once got a hell of a surprise when smoking some "tobacco" confiscated from one of the less well-behaved inmates.

Presumably they would be immediately accused of noncery for doing that these days.

microdave said...

"Anything we did on the way to or from school or any other time while in uniform was unquestionably a disciplinary matter for the school"

Absolutely - We were told, in no uncertain terms, that we represented the school whilst in uniform, and this applied from the moment we stepped outside our own door to the time we returned. How things have changed - a few years ago I went up to my local secondary school to complain about the (mis)behaviour of some pupils when on their way home. The school secretary didn't want to know...

JuliaM said...

"Back in my day (yes, I know) anything we did on the way to or from school or any other time while in uniform was unquestionably a disciplinary matter for the school. "

My mother's school once called a special assembly because it had been reported that girls in uniform were sitting on the Tube while an elderly adult had to stand. They were harangued for a 1/2 hour and made to feel 2 inches tall!

These days, there'd be outrage and 'I know my rights!'...

"The school secretary didn't want to know..."

The BTP has occasionally been prodded into action by c2c management, but as soon as they stop riding around on the trains, it goes back to normal...