“Folty bus”: Do you really know what’s going on during your child’s school transport?

Drivers who tell students to “close their mouths”. Others who have objects. Children aged 5 or 6 not found after being disembarked at the wrong stop. The newspaper peeled hundreds of complaints related to school transport. More often than we think, it is “the crazy bus”.

“The bus is my nightmares,” said Jennifer Tremblay, a mother of two children from Terrebonne who have each experienced a disturbing story in a yellow bus in recent years.

Nolan, now 10 years old, was quickly removed from his journey in the fall of 2022 after the driver pushed him in his bench.

Then, in September 2024, Maddison, 6, remained taken for almost 3 hours in the bus of a completely lost and shouted driver instead of reassuring young people.

Not exceptional

Exceptional, this kind of incident?

Not if we rely on complaints recorded by more than 25 service centers and school boards (CSS) since 2022 and obtained by requests for access to information.

The newspaper was able to identify four observations:

1. Several drivers have inadequate behaviors or remarks, whether they are built, insult or threaten students, or even drive dangerously (to read today).

2. Drivers are left to themselves with young turbulent or intimate and deplore the lack of collaboration of the CSS (to read here).

3. Primary students are lost, generally after being disembarked at the wrong stop, and were found thanks to the police or a good Samaritan (to read on Sunday).

4. Solutions exist, but a minority of CSS and carriers use them (to read Tuesday).

“It’s the crazy bus,” said a complaint received by a CSS in Estrie.

Poor quality

Many parents interviewed have the impression that today’s transport service has nothing to do with what they themselves have known in their young time.

“Are drivers sufficiently trained?” Is there enough prevention with students? ” wonders Jérôme Maltais, vice-president of the parents’ federation.

He believes that Quebec is ripe for a “great reflection”.

For example, a CSS has decided to train drivers and students with expected behaviors in the bus, an initiative that has already started to bear fruit (to read Tuesday).

“What we want is that our children are safe. That they are not afraid to take the bus to get on, ”sums up Mr. Maltais.

Since this year, Nolan has been going on foot to his neighborhood school. “For real, it takes a big weight on my shoulders,” concludes Jennifer Tremblay.

Some examples of complaints

▪ “You, my Tabarnak, you with your 2% neurons,” would be used to launching a driver. The complaint was considered to be founded, according to the follow -up. –CSS des Patriotes, Montérégie

▪ “The driver had discussions on sexuality with them [les élèves] in transport. He would have appointed love the day before and talked about sexuality in general. ” –CSS of the capital, Quebec

▪ A student obtained a 5 -day suspension of school transport after having “urinated in a sandwich bag. He was very proud of it. ” –CSS des Hautes-Laurentides

See other examples ❯