In cell phone video taken two weeks ago by Kealing Middle School 7th grader Alexia Heinrich, Austin ISD school bus driver Lame Fakhreddine is standing in the aisle. So are students. One girl is heard cursing. It is 2:51 p.m. and Fakhreddine is refusing to leave Kealing Middle School.
“As it is now, everyone who will not move to his seat, as it is now, I won't take off at this time,” Fakhreddine is heard telling students in the video.
Heinrich says the kids on his bus are not that badly behaved. She says the rules are strict: boys on one side, girls on the other, and no turning to talk to the people seated behind them.
Heinrich says, “It's like a normal bus. He gets angry pretty easily and people are talking and he gets angry easily.”
Fakhreddine is allowed to have a seating chart and students are supposed to be seated and facing forward at all times. On Friday, he refused to release the students to their parents at Lee Elementary, a drop off point, until police came.
“You want to get off the bus?” Fakhreddine is heard saying on the video recording from Friday. “You don't want to stay on the bus? No! Next time, this is the last time.”
Fakhreddine, who is on paid leave, has been on the job only two months.
The scenario on Fakhreddine's bus is the type of role play the Texas Association for Pupil Transportation would act out in training school bus drivers. TAPT President-Elect Rhonda Davis says that getting students to comply with rules means giving them consequences and choices.
“Like, ‘I need you to sit down,’ and give them three verbal warnings, and ultimately giving them, the student, the choice of making the right decision,” Davis says.
As Transportation Director for Lake Travis ISD, Davis often drives or rides a school bus.
She says driving a school bus can be rewarding, but difficult.
“They've got 60 to 70 students, you know, behind them, with their back turned, and they're having to deal with construction, weather, other pedestrians, traffic, and then of course, trying to maintain some type of mediocrity on the bus at the same time,” Davis says.
Most school buses are equipped to hold up to 56 middle school students or 84 elementary-age students.
AISD and other school districts KVUE News spoke with have no set student to adult ratio for school buses.
For anyone who wants to become a bus driver, or for bus drivers who feel they need more training and support, the Texas Association for Pupil Transportation is hosting a training session in Kerrville. Student management is a part of the training. It is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 24, at the Inn of the Hills in Kerrville. To register, visit the TAPT's website at www.tapt.com.
