I’m a school bus driver. Some of my coworkers recently tried putting tape over the on-bus cameras so they could get away with vaping and smoking and using their phones while driving. The stupidity required to think they could get away with this is mind-boggling. 1) They thought it would actually work in the sense that our bosses would not notice that the camera was not recording anything, and 2) they thought if it was detected that our bosses wouldn’t know it was them that put the tape up. Turns out the cameras are recording even when the buses are turned off and the little red light isn’t on.
I’m naturally opposed to the surveillance state, but I wouldn’t want to be taking action on this principle just so I could fucking smoke and use my phone while driving a school bus. Amazingly, my coworkers got nothing but a warning for this, and then we all got a sternly-worded letter telling us not to fuck with the cameras.
Nobody got fired because no angry parents found out about this and showed up with lawyers. The people who get fired are the ones who actions turn into lawsuits against the school district.
Frankly, I’m horrified at the idea of someone with so little self-preservation that they would turn off the security cameras in a school bus. The person that camera most helps is the bus driver.
I work as a substitute teacher, and frankly I WISH we had cameras in the classrooms. The horror stories I’ve heard? Kids are not above making false allegations against teachers they don’t like. Hell, groups of them will collude to do so to bring down a teacher they don’t like. Some kids a are just psychos. (Or more charitably, they simply haven’t morally matured.)
I’ve been lucky to not have this happen to me, but sometimes kids will just straight-up lie to cover for their own bad behavior, or to get back at a teacher that dared to discipline them. With regular teachers, they usually have enough protections to require a formal investigation. But with substitutes? Often schools or districts will just fire a sub and not think twice of it, even when an allegation is completely ridiculous. It’s easier to make the sub disappear than to thoroughly investigate a claim.
I WISH I had cameras in my classrooms. As a substitute, it would allow the teacher to directly see the kind of behavior their kids engage in while away, and to discipline the troublemakers accordingly. For regular teachers, it would both prevent false allegations and also prevent litigious parents of disruptive students from working the system. Plenty of parents think so little of teachers that they will believe a lying 6th grader over an adult, trained, and licensed teacher.
I wouldn’t feel any lack of privacy as a teacher from having cameras right in the classroom. I already have to deal with many eyes on me all day long. I work every day knowing I have to be careful with what I say or how I act.
I can understand why the students wouldn’t want cameras in the classroom. The bad kids don’t want accountability and everyone wants a little privacy. But for the school employee? It’s baffling to me why you wouldn’t want your workplace recorded. One false accusation can ruin your entire career.
I hear you, its very bad you need to think about this, nothing justifies cameras in the classroom. or on the bus. no companies can be reasonably trusted with handling the recordings and the access responsibly. none of them do that, everyone is going for the cheapest sloppiest solution, not caring for if the recordings are uploaded to a company dealing in even facial recognition database development.
I hear you, its very bad you need to think about this, nothing justifies cameras in the classroom. or on the bus. no companies can be reasonably trusted with handling the recordings and the access responsibly. none of them do that, everyone is going for the cheapest sloppiest solution, not caring for if the recordings are uploaded to a company dealing in even facial recognition database development.
AFAIK they’ve never vaped on the bus with kids aboard, they do it when it’s empty or parked. I have seen them many times using their phones with kids aboard, though. There’s one driver that I never saw without her phone in one hand when I passed her; she was friends with the old transportation director so she was able to get away with anything, although the new director I think is trying to get rid of her. This driver hit two cars in one day and somehow still has her job.
She wasn’t even suspended, although after this the director instituted a policy of a week’s suspension if the accident is your fault and you have to undergo mandatory re-training. Pretty amazing that we had no such policy prior to this.
I was a school bus driver for a while. The company sucked and I hated them. I vaped in front of the camera (only on an empty bus) and no one said anything.
I think that’s your problem. Private school bus companies don’t give a fuck about anything, including (especially) their employees and whatever bullshit they get up to. Working for a school district that operates its own buses is the only way the job can be decent, although that’s a crap shoot. My district pays great (nearly $35 an hour) and provides excellent health insurance and even a pension if you survive ten years. Other districts in the area pay less than $25 per hour and provide no benefits.
Just looked up Canada’s minimum wage. That is fucking terrible and yet still nearly twice the US minimum wage. Paying that for someone with a CDL is nuts. Even if it doesn’t require a CDL in Canada it’s still fucking nuts. Did you at least get 8 hours a day?
I took on the “spare driver” role which paid $120/day because I was getting switched around all the time. The drivers on regular morning/afternoon run only got $90.
They say you’ll make $22 because “the routes only take an hour” 😳. Some routes that was true for, but not most of them.
So, minimum wage is $15/hr in our province and labour laws state that a split shift must pay a minimum of 3 hours per shift. So a minimum of 6 hours daily. Divide $90 by 6 and they’re paying $15/hour.
They’re always short drivers here, and are constantly training because of a 250% turnover rate. It’s ridiculous.
I’m a school bus driver. Some of my coworkers recently tried putting tape over the on-bus cameras so they could get away with vaping and smoking and using their phones while driving. The stupidity required to think they could get away with this is mind-boggling. 1) They thought it would actually work in the sense that our bosses would not notice that the camera was not recording anything, and 2) they thought if it was detected that our bosses wouldn’t know it was them that put the tape up. Turns out the cameras are recording even when the buses are turned off and the little red light isn’t on.
I’m naturally opposed to the surveillance state, but I wouldn’t want to be taking action on this principle just so I could fucking smoke and use my phone while driving a school bus. Amazingly, my coworkers got nothing but a warning for this, and then we all got a sternly-worded letter telling us not to fuck with the cameras.
Addiction causes the brain to convince itself of the craziest nonsense.
Nobody got fired because no angry parents found out about this and showed up with lawyers. The people who get fired are the ones who actions turn into lawsuits against the school district.
Frankly, I’m horrified at the idea of someone with so little self-preservation that they would turn off the security cameras in a school bus. The person that camera most helps is the bus driver.
I work as a substitute teacher, and frankly I WISH we had cameras in the classrooms. The horror stories I’ve heard? Kids are not above making false allegations against teachers they don’t like. Hell, groups of them will collude to do so to bring down a teacher they don’t like. Some kids a are just psychos. (Or more charitably, they simply haven’t morally matured.)
I’ve been lucky to not have this happen to me, but sometimes kids will just straight-up lie to cover for their own bad behavior, or to get back at a teacher that dared to discipline them. With regular teachers, they usually have enough protections to require a formal investigation. But with substitutes? Often schools or districts will just fire a sub and not think twice of it, even when an allegation is completely ridiculous. It’s easier to make the sub disappear than to thoroughly investigate a claim.
I WISH I had cameras in my classrooms. As a substitute, it would allow the teacher to directly see the kind of behavior their kids engage in while away, and to discipline the troublemakers accordingly. For regular teachers, it would both prevent false allegations and also prevent litigious parents of disruptive students from working the system. Plenty of parents think so little of teachers that they will believe a lying 6th grader over an adult, trained, and licensed teacher.
I wouldn’t feel any lack of privacy as a teacher from having cameras right in the classroom. I already have to deal with many eyes on me all day long. I work every day knowing I have to be careful with what I say or how I act.
I can understand why the students wouldn’t want cameras in the classroom. The bad kids don’t want accountability and everyone wants a little privacy. But for the school employee? It’s baffling to me why you wouldn’t want your workplace recorded. One false accusation can ruin your entire career.
No, the person that camera helps the most is the one that sells footage to AI companies for training data.
I hear you, its very bad you need to think about this, nothing justifies cameras in the classroom. or on the bus. no companies can be reasonably trusted with handling the recordings and the access responsibly. none of them do that, everyone is going for the cheapest sloppiest solution, not caring for if the recordings are uploaded to a company dealing in even facial recognition database development.
I hear you, its very bad you need to think about this, nothing justifies cameras in the classroom. or on the bus. no companies can be reasonably trusted with handling the recordings and the access responsibly. none of them do that, everyone is going for the cheapest sloppiest solution, not caring for if the recordings are uploaded to a company dealing in even facial recognition database development.
I think it’s hilarious that the drivers thought kids wouldn’t gossip about the bus driver vaping. 😄
Do they not remember how fast stories about teachers fly through student bodies?
AFAIK they’ve never vaped on the bus with kids aboard, they do it when it’s empty or parked. I have seen them many times using their phones with kids aboard, though. There’s one driver that I never saw without her phone in one hand when I passed her; she was friends with the old transportation director so she was able to get away with anything, although the new director I think is trying to get rid of her. This driver hit two cars in one day and somehow still has her job.
That seems borderline impossible but here we are in the age of zero accountability and madness.
She wasn’t even suspended, although after this the director instituted a policy of a week’s suspension if the accident is your fault and you have to undergo mandatory re-training. Pretty amazing that we had no such policy prior to this.
I was a school bus driver for a while. The company sucked and I hated them. I vaped in front of the camera (only on an empty bus) and no one said anything.
I think that’s your problem. Private school bus companies don’t give a fuck about anything, including (especially) their employees and whatever bullshit they get up to. Working for a school district that operates its own buses is the only way the job can be decent, although that’s a crap shoot. My district pays great (nearly $35 an hour) and provides excellent health insurance and even a pension if you survive ten years. Other districts in the area pay less than $25 per hour and provide no benefits.
Damn. That’s way better than what we have here. (this is in Canada)
There’s 2 school boards in my city and about 5 school bus companies who bid on routes.
They literally pay minimum wage with no benefits or anything.
I only did it because I was transitioning careers from driving trucks during the pandemic and nothing was happening in my chosen industry
You’d think they would have a really hard time attracting talent at those rates in a place with legal weed.
It’s mostly immigrant wives and retired people working there, all trained in the last 6 months most likely
Just looked up Canada’s minimum wage. That is fucking terrible and yet still nearly twice the US minimum wage. Paying that for someone with a CDL is nuts. Even if it doesn’t require a CDL in Canada it’s still fucking nuts. Did you at least get 8 hours a day?
Oh fuck no.
I took on the “spare driver” role which paid $120/day because I was getting switched around all the time. The drivers on regular morning/afternoon run only got $90.
They say you’ll make $22 because “the routes only take an hour” 😳. Some routes that was true for, but not most of them.
So, minimum wage is $15/hr in our province and labour laws state that a split shift must pay a minimum of 3 hours per shift. So a minimum of 6 hours daily. Divide $90 by 6 and they’re paying $15/hour.
They’re always short drivers here, and are constantly training because of a 250% turnover rate. It’s ridiculous.