Bus Drivers Can Play Role in Students' Lives

By Mindy Mizell, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Thousands of Oklahoma students are back in the classroom now, and there's one person who will be spending a lot of time with your child, besides the teacher; bus drivers.

Bus drivers are often forgotten, but your child's safety is in their hands every day.

Welcoming students on board her bus is a daily ritual for Terri Black, just one of thousands of drivers in Oklahoma with the same routine.

"When you sign up to be a bus driver, you don't know all the things that go with it," Black said.

Just becoming a school bus driver is tough enough. Before you ever get paid a dime, applicants are required to take themselves to school and complete 25 hours of unpaid, in-class training and pass nine tests.

"Then we also have to have the physical, the drug test and the background screen, just to start working here," Jenks Bus Driver Trainer Karen Keithline said.

But once you do, Keithline says it's worth it. She trains bus drivers for a living and says if you're considering applying the number one job requirement is love.

"You really, truly have to love kids in this business; we don't get paid what we're worth," said Keithline. We've got a lot of responsibility."

But, it's a tough position to fill. Bus drivers typically work just five hours a day and average $1,600 a month. Most pick up odd jobs, in the cafeteria, or with the school, to pay bills. And the job itself requires a huge personal commitment. 

"When I'm training I do call them babies, I don't call them students," said Keithline. "Those are somebody's babies and when they are on this bus they are my babies."

She knows sometimes it's the bus itself that has the potential to do the most harm. 

"It scares me to be real honest," said Black. "The biggest fear I've had since day one is that one of my children will get off, and one of my kids divert my attention and I hit one of my own kids."

It's that fear that also drives Transportation Director Floyd Gates, a 25-year retired firefighter who has a zero tolerance policy with his drivers. Texting while driving is not allowed. And talking on your cell phone is out of the question. 

"It only takes a second to kill or injure; a split second," Gates said.

To protect students, drivers have a nine-step pre-board checklist of things to inspect. Potential drivers are even required to check each and every mirror before they're ever allowed behind the wheel. But once they're on, they quickly learn it gets trickier than you'd think.

"These vehicles are anywhere from 36 to 40 feet long," said Gates. "The wheel base is a little bigger than your normal car."

But a normal car doesn't have an oversized windshield. 

"But it gets fogged up real easy because of the humid breaths are breathing behind you," Keithline said.

But of course, kids don't sit just there and breathe; it's their noises that can often be most distracting. 

"You have the kids, you have the outside traffic, you have the road noise…" Black said.

At the end of the day there's finally silence, but a bus driver's day is still not done. The bus driver must make sure all the students make off the bus safely.

"That's what you do when you park, first thing, that's what you do," Black said.

But, despite the long days, the training, the headaches, most say it's all worth it.

"You learn so much about yourself," Black said. 

And, they learn their job should be called bus driver/teacher/counselor/friend all rolled into one.

Although Oklahoma's bus drivers go through a thorough vetting to make sure they're safe accidents still happen.