Photo IDs have been issued to all Kiley Middle School students so that misbehavior can be reported by bus drivers.
SPRINGFIELD – Officials at Thursday night's School Committee meeting said steps are being taken to improve the behavior of students on school buses.
School Committee member Antonette Pepe said identifications with photographs have been issued to all Kiley Middle School students so that misbehavior can be reported by the bus drivers to the school.
Reducing the length of bus rides next year for some students should help with behavior problems, Pepe said. Some students from the South End now are on school buses for 40 minutes each way to Kiley Middle School. Next year, some of those students will walk to the new middle school in the South End, Ingram said.
The School Committee on Thursday approved Ingram's plan for a new middle school at the former Our Lady of Mount Carmel School on Margaret Street in the South End.
Antonette PepeIngram said that students will be suspended for bad behavior on school buses. He said the school bus policy needs to be reviewed so that students who are suspended from the bus are not then picked up by bus drivers.
Pepe had a meeting earlier this week at Kiley Middle School with about 50 bus drivers who complained that students are spitting on them, climbing through bus windows and the roof hatch of the bus and dangling over the bus mirror.
“This is a serious issue,” Pepe said.
She said that if a student is suspended from the bus, then a parent will have to drive the child to school.
“Parents have to parent,” she said.