Many Rio Norte Jr. High School students rely on the Rio Norte bus system to get to and from school and their parents trust that their child will make it to school and return home safely. However, the majority of students who ride the bus would say it’s chaotic, loud, and many feel uncomfortable.
The starter of the madness, students say, is usually one thing: Circle K drinks, slurpees and snacks. In fact, within the first two weeks of school, the first of many fights happened over a drink and noodles. Many of the students that ride on the bus walk down to Circle K after school and purchase a big drink and some snacks. Then, they walk across the street and over to the bus stop on Copper Hill and Decor. While the bus has a very visible sign that says “No Eating Or Drinking”, these problematic students choose to drink onboard anyway.
The first, and very memorable, fight on the bus was early on into the year. The
Courtesy of Kate Lindell
kids hopped onto the bus with their drinks and one had an additional cup of ramen noodles. One Rio student reported, “ It was a Wednesday, so the bus filled faster and there were no seats available by the time we got to the first bus stop. The boy with the drink and ramen was left standing. All the kids started yelling, worried the noodles and drinks were going to spill, and that they did. Some got on a kid and he got really mad and started to push the kid with the ramen.”
“From there,” another student reported, “it all went downhill. A soda spills, soaking some girl who was sitting down, the ramen spills, leaving a sticky, smelly mess, kids are screaming and swearing, someone is getting pushed! It was crazy.”
When asked, a 7th grade student reported that the madness caused her to get off the bus significantly earlier than her stop. One of the main issues is that this was not properly dealt with and no students received any punishments, which led to them continuing this behavior. Since then, there have been numerous similar bus incidents following.
A more recent issue has caused one of the bus drivers to have to stop the bus completely. After a bus driver had told the kids to throw their drinks away, some students responded with angry faces and swearing mouths. Little did the driver know that the students were going to try and retrieve their drinks back out of the bus trash can. However, they were caught and the bus driver ended up having to stop alongside the road for the students to throw away their drinks in another trash can so they wouldn’t be able to steal them back.
A few days later, the kids decided that hiding the drinks in their backpacks would allow them to have their sodas onboard. Once they had successfully got on to the bus, the drinks came out. The bus driver saw immediately that they had drinks and pulled over. Sophia Bett, a student who was on the bus during this reported that the bus driver had said, “To those of you who have drinks, I’m not going to move this bus until you throw them away.” He made the students get off the bus and dump their drinks. There were no repercussions for their behavior, other than the drinks being thrown out.
On top of all this, many of the problematic students have said things to other bus riders that have made them uncomfortable. One girl reported, “A boy looked me in my face and said ‘I’m going to jump you and beat you up!’ I ignored him and he swore at me and called me names.” Other students have had similar experiences. Sophia Bett also witnessed a separate fight that reportedly started over who liked who.
Clearly, bus etiquette isn’t being followed and there’s been no repercussions for any of the many incidents on the bus. Students at Rio can, and are encouraged to report this issue to the office staff to address the concerns regarding this behavior outside school hours. Rio, together can solve this problem and make the bus feel like a safe, comfortable place to be.