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The shortage of drivers to fill bus routes is a nationwide problem, but Hawkins County’s transportation supervisor expressed his frustration in getting replacement drivers first certified and some leaving after student misconduct on several routes.

At Thursday’s Hawkins County Board of Education meeting, Transportation Supervisor Rolando “Roy” Benavides lamented about several factors, including the number of routes not having full-time drivers, the frustration of getting drivers certified by the state and some of those drivers leaving after disciplinary incidents on different routes.

“It’s kind of shocking to see that,” Board Chairman Chris Christian said. “I contacted Roy to see what we could do as a board to see what we could do to assist. When I hung the phone up after that conversation, I was better informed, unfortunately, as to the reasons that we’re having difficulties filling all of these routes.”

“These incidents are getting more weekly,” Benavides said. “It’s harder to abide by all of the rules in order for that to take place. A lot of the requirements you have to do (to become a driver) are time-consuming. Obviously it’s important for that bus driver to know what to do, to know how to do it, but at the same time it’s very difficult if you’re trying to get through this process to get to be able to be a bus driver.”

Benavides said that it takes months, literally, to go through training.

“It is something that they have to go through, training, hands-on testing (which has to be scheduled). These things have been pushed back to where they complete the time it takes to get through. It’s much longer than it used to be,” he said.

Benavides said that there have been times when he has tried to call the state about scheduling testing for potential drivers, but has not been able to get through to speak to a live person.

“We call that number all day and all it does is put us on hold for usually five to six minutes only to say that everybody is busy and to call back at a different time,” he said. “It has definitely made it difficult to acquire more drivers once we do get those drivers.”

Benavides said that the drivers ask about better pay to drive.

“I completely understand that,” he said. “More money will always let a driver tolerate a little bit more.”

Benavides also discussed the disciplinary issue that drivers are facing now.

“There is a disrespect and defiance some children have that is shocking,” he said. “When you have a middle schooler who will stand up and say, ‘My dad pays your salary. I don’t have to (expletive) sit anywhere you have me to sit. I can sit anywhere I want.’ When that type of mentality comes in and that driver has to determine (whether to) push this, stop the bus or write them up to see how this plays out.”

“This (behavior) is very different than anything I’ve ever put up with growing up,” he said. “I would have never even come close to speaking (that way) to an adult.”

There have been monitors placed on some routes to try to catch behaviors, Benavides said.

“We’ve had some students tell that monitor, ‘You’re not the driver. I don’t have to do anything you say. I can do whatever I want. You don’t even know my name so you won’t write me up no way, so it doesn’t matter,’” he said. “It is repeatedly and you get to a point where the drivers (say), ‘I can’t do this.’”

Benavides talked about vaping by students on bus routes.

“It is skyrocketing,” he said. “It’s getting into elementary schools more and more now. We’ve had to literally call the rescue squad when the bus pulls into the school because some kids are not coherent about what is going on.”

Benavides said that an unnamed neighboring county is at a level where they are going to initiate a policy to keep Narcam on the buses to where there is an overdose, they will have something to help that.

“They’re seeing the same things we are,” he said. “I’ve seen a student who’s been in a parking lot throwing up, the students on the bus are still vaping the substance that he used as he was throwing up. They don’t think to say what is in this or ask. Some vapes are very different than others, some are nicotine, and some are THC. They affect the kids differently.”

Benavides said that a child passed out on the bus and hit their head hard enough where he could hear it on the bus video. The child lay on the seat for 12 minutes and was coherent enough to walk into the school.

School board policy goes as far as suspension from school, but some children are raised by grandparents who are unable to discipline children for various reasons. Benavides said that if discipline is not administered at home as well as school, a lesson will not be learned. He said about 60% of children in the system are being raised by grandparents.

“We’re trying to react to something that shouldn’t have happened to begin with,” Benavides said.

Board member Alina Gorlova said that students have to have accountability and consequences.

“We could do anything, it does not work,” she said. “It’s about proper consequences for the rule breakers.”

“If we are brought into the loop on what’s happening on the buses, there are immediate consequences,” Director of Schools Matt Hixson said. “The problem is that the situation Roy is bringing up is nine times out of 10 we’re told about it later in the day or the next day and that’s only if the student or another person on the bus lets us know. We don’t have livestreaming video of buses. It’s all recorded for a period of time then overridden. Unless we are told about some of these incidences or it happens to be seen, we may find out days after the fact.

“We do respond as quickly as possible,” Hixson said. “We do suspend students, we do remove them from buses permanently. We have done a lot of that this year. That does have bigger consequences down the road because we lose them and access to that student, who loses access to education. They’re not with somebody who holds them accountable.”

Hixson said that he and board plan to go “outside the box” to deal with disciplinary issues on buses.

“We’ve got to start working and be creative in these situations,” he said. “Suspending students from school should be and are a last resort unless the act is intolerable. We have zero tolerance on students who have drugs on the bus or at school. Suspensions when not accompanied by accountability in the home does nothing. That is out of our control.”

The driver situation is made dire by the retirement of five drivers at the end of the current school year, as well as several more drivers the following year.

“We spent six months last year getting three qualified applicants with the system,” Hixson said. “We try to get them on the hook and paid as soon as possible.”

If drivers are not hired to drive buses, routes will have to be amended, also with possible central drop-off and pick-up points, but neither option is desirable, Hixson said.

“Riding a bus is not a right, it’s a privilege,” Christian said. “Riding a bus is an extension of the classroom. They’d better start behaving themselves. Solutions are going to come swift. We can’t let a select few ruin it for everybody else.”