Boys and girls can’t be trusted with each other. At least, that is the viewpoint of the bus system reported by a Charlotte news station last Thursday. Students were supposedly moved and separated for getting “too involved” with the opposite sex in the back of the bus.
For years now, the issue of separating students based on gender has sparked up in pockets from irritated students, shocked parents and frustrated school officials at a loss of how to make rowdy students behave. For a while, it was a rule on my own bus in middle school.
Before anyone jumps down the throat of the drivers, a few things must be considered. They have a difficult job. Not only are they expected to chauffeur large numbers of students to and from school everyday, but they are tasked with monitoring the safety and behavior of those schools. My own drivers back in Durham could and did report bad behavior to the school administrators for disciplinary purposes. Buses, especially in larger areas, are often overcrowded, packing students like sardines with little regard to the bulging book bags or overbearing instruments with no other choice but to spill into the aisles. These kids are not only cramped, but they are also loud, not necessarily behaved and eager to move around in the bus, despite the safety concerns associated with moving around on the bus. Bus drivers are given the room to make rules as they see fit for the understandable need of being able to pay attention to the road without ignoring the students. Some people are more gifted with the art of multi-tasking than others.
However, who can blame the students for acting this way, either? Within reason, students are going to act out, because they need to, too. If a student is lucky, they get 30 minutes to eat lunch. In some schools, the number is actually 20. Teachers assume you can use this 20 or 30 minutes to eat, socialize, use the bathroom and visit your locker, if you’re actually allowed to roam the halls to do so. Afternoon teachers often bank on the assumption all of that is out of a student’s system, but it’s not. Students have trouble focusing and acting like the mature adults, which is unfair, as they are not, for eight hours, minus that 30 minutes. By the time students get out, they’re raring to socialize, to move around and to be loud like they haven’t been able to. After all, they’re still kids. That goes for both high school and middle school students.
With all of this in mind, school bus drivers should be allowed to make up disciplinary rules based on what is best for their students. However, it’s never fair to punish all students based on the actions of a few. Students caught misbehaving – by exploring where they shouldn’t or the other many, numerous and creative ways to misbehave – should be moved to the front.
It’s an issue that leaves out a variety of things. Separating them on the bus doesn’t actually solve the problem a school and parents have of students anxious to discover each other. If you separate them there, they’ll figure out another way to subvert their boundaries. Separating everyone unfairly punishes students who have not, in fact, misbehaved by forcing them away from friends or preventing them from meeting new, potential friends. Finally, it makes the assumption all middle- and high-school students are heterosexual. Gender in itself is a poor way to determine mischievous behavior. A much better way to prevent sexual behavior would be to separate the offending students and to keep them in the front, after informing their parents.
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