Anti-Social Behaviour on School Buses

Education and Leisure Services WILL NOT tolerate anti-social behaviour on school transport. Anti-social behaviour can be reported by a teacher, pupil, driver or member of the public.

Education and Leisure Services will carry out an investigation into the reported incident by working closely with both the school and bus operator. This would normally involve taking written statements from pupils who witnessed the incident and individually interviewing those pupils who were named or identified as being involved. Drivers may also be requested to submit a report.

Any information given is treated in confidence. The investigation will seek to establish, as far as possible, exactly what happened and who is responsible.

In very serious cases, the bus operator may call the police, particularly if there has been damage to the vehicle. The police will carry out their own investigation and may also wish to interview those pupils involved.

Following an investigation, further actions against offending pupils will be agreed between Education and Leisure Services and the school. This is usually in the form of an exclusion from transport for a defined period although disciplinary action within the school, e.g. after school detentions, may be agreed as an alternative.

The action taken will depend on the severity of the incident and whether a pupil is known to have previously been involved in anti-social behaviour.

When exclusion from transport has been agreed, parents will normally be notified in writing and given an appropriate period of notice before the exclusion period starts. This is to allow parents an opportunity to make alternative transport arrangements. During the exclusion period, it remains the responsibility of the parents to ensure their child's continued attendance at school.

In very serious cases, where it is considered that the safety of the vehicle, other pupils or other road users would be put at risk by allowing a pupil to continue to travel, exclusion from the transport may start immediately and without written notice. In such cases, the school or service will attempt to contact parents to make them aware of the situation and arrange for them to collect the pupil from school.

Parents and pupils should be aware that CCTV equipment is used on a number of school contract buses to support initiatives against anti-social behaviour and vandalism. Vehicles using CCTV will have notices displayed to this effect. Recording images may be shown to school staff to identify individual pupils.

Persistant mis-behaviour will result in PERMANENT WITHDRAWL of school transport entitlement.