School Buses

     The school bus routes are ridiculous and gas wasting. So the way most bus routes work is the first person on is the first person off and the last person on is the last person off. I'm sure many people can agree with this, right? Well, that's not how mine works. 

    My bus route is split into two routes. We have a group of kids that get on and off on one side of town and the rest of us that get off on the other side of town. The kids on the richer side of town get on the bus last, so they get to sleep in the longest. That no big deal, that just means the bus should drop them off last too. Wrong. They get dropped off first. Okay, that's kind of annoying. Not only that is in the mornings I'm picked up in the middle of the route. That's fine, that's not too bad. If that's how it is done in the evenings too. But it's not. 

     In the evenings I'm the last person off. I get home at 4:30. A whole hour and a half after school let out. That's a long time to spend on the bus. I spend 45 minutes in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon on the bus. That makes for a total of 2 hours and 15 minutes on the bus. (approximately.) Meanwhile, these special treatment kids never spend more than 45 minutes on the bus altogether. Do you know how annoying that is? 

     For the gas wasting part, you'll have to paint a picture in your head. The elementary, middle, and junior high school are all right next to each other, in the same general location. The high school is on the other side of town. In the mornings, My bus driver picks up the last student of the route, and we are right by the high school. 

     Now to my next point. It is ridiculously unfair. When I was in 8th grade I had two friends on the bus. One was a grade younger than me. The other one was in high school. I remember the way the bus was set up was high school in the back and elementary in the front and everyone else spread out throughout, the youngest towards the front still. 

      I was in junior high so I figured my friends and I could all sit together, with us all being very close to the same grade. Well, wrong. We got assigned seats and he assigned us all together on the bus. Well, come a week later a girl who was a year older than me complained and I had to go all the way to the middle of the bus, with the middle school kids. I'm not even in middle school so why? I asked him and he said, "you're not old enough to be with the high school kids." My friends and I all sat together though because the oldest of us just said: " screw the bus driver I'll just come up here." 

     Now fast forward to this year. I am a junior in high school but I still feel like I'm just in junior high. There's this girl who's in middle school and she decided she's going to take my seat in the very back of the bus. The seat I've been sitting in for two years now. And like I said she's in middle school. So why does she get to take my seat in the back of the bus as a middle schooler, and force me to go forward and not get in trouble but I do? I even told the bus driver about it but he doesn't care. 

     

     Now my third point. My bus driver is so ridiculously old. He literally looks like he came from the stone age. He terrifies me to ride the bus with him. He's at least 60-70 years old and I swear he cannot see. 

     A couple years back he ran over a mailbox. A mailbox. Why? He gives certain kids special treatment and if they need something in the mornings he turns around and takes them back to their house to pick up whatever they need. (Not for me though) So he was in the process of turning around for one of these girls and he runs over their mailbox. Flattens it to the ground. Also pretty much every day he hits every single pothole and runs over every curb he comes to. Not to mention I'm pretty sure most of the time he's going over the speed limit because that bus flies down the road.

The buses even look creepy

Now all of these points have been about my bus driver in particular. So how about we get to all buses as a whole. 

1. There is no air conditioner. 

     We have a heater (don't get me wrong, that's really nice and I appreciate it.), but there is no air conditioner.  The bus driver gets an air conditioner up front, but that's it. For the rest of us, we're out of luck. 

2. No bathrooms

     Okay, this one I get is a little silly. But, RV trailers have bathrooms, Airplanes have bathrooms. Why can't a bus? We have to be on there for anywhere from 10 minutes-2 hours. And bus drivers refuse to stop and let you pee. I don't usually have enough time at the end of the day to pee before I get on the bus. So let me tell you for those 2 hours I have to pee, that's literal hell. 

3. Pointless rules

     There are lots of rules on the bus. No eating, no drinking. (A bottle of water on hot days.) That's the most ridiculous rule. Water is important on all days, regardless if it's hot or not. So screw you Mr. Bus Driver, but I'm bringing water on the bus every day. 

     Another stupid rule. My shuttle bus driver put in a new rule that we can only have one earbud in our ear. (another rule I won't be following.) With as loud as the bus is, just the bus alone, I can barely hear my music with one earbud in and my music turned all the way up. (keep in mind if you take them out in a quiet room you can hear them on the other side of said room.) So not only is that extremely damaging to your ears, but it's dumb. Now add in all the kids yelling, I can't hear a thing with only one earbud in. Thanks for your concern, but I'm wearing both my earbuds, no matter how many times you remind me "only one." 

     Now, for the worst rule of them all. The Boy and the Girl side. Girls sit behind the driver, boys sit on the passenger side. I understand not wanting boys and girls to sit in the same seat, but when the girls to boys ratio is three to 1 and each seat on the girls side has three to four girls in each seat, and every boy has their own seat, with some seats still empty, that's when I think girls should be allowed to sit on the boys side. Just saying. 

4. And most importantly NO SEATBELTS 

     So if I'm driving on my own, I have to wear a seatbelt or else my parents will receive anything from $400 in jail to a prison sentence for child abuse. That's punishment for one child not wearing a seatbelt. Can someone please explain to me why some random pervert is allowed to drive around with 20-50 kids, no of which wearing a seatbelt, and no one gives a damn? Either cops need to cool down with the seatbelt laws in cars, or they need to put seatbelts on buses.


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