NORWAY – Students and school bus drivers at Guy E. Rowe Elementary School teamed up last Thursday for bus safety and evacuation drills.
Each elementary school in the Oxford Hills school district conducts two bus safety drills per year, one in the fall and another in the spring.
“These drills help give the kids an understanding of what to do in the event of an emergency,” said Maine School Administrative District 17’s Transportation Director Chuck Beardsley. “The drivers go over a few different things with them: how to safely evacuate the bus, the options to, and how to, evacuate, using the emergency exits, how to operate the radio in the event the bus driver is rendered ill or unconscious. They learn what to say and what to listen for from my office.”
Different situations involving a driver versus an accident dictate how the students need to respond.
“The driver, if the bus is still drivable, would pull over to a safe spot as they radio into the transportation (department),” Beardsley said. “We would then dispatch medical personnel, police and fire departments as needed. Next, the driver begins the process of evacuating the students.
In an accident, if the rear end of a bus is compromised, they should be prepared to exit through the front or the side doors. There may be situations where the safest way to evacuate is to open the bus’s roof hatch.
“Often an older child can play a part to help the other students along, especially if the rear or side exits have to be used,” Beardsley said. “It’s a big drop-off compared to walking down the set of stairs at the front. Bigger kids can help the younger ones (scoot) down, not jump off.”
The bus driver crew running the safety drills at Rowe were Alexander (Jack) Paley, Raymond Daggett, Wade Ward, Mitch Morrisette and Shawn Webster.
Six buses were used at Rowe, three full-size and three of the smaller transportation buses. Two grades were assigned to each of the bigger buses. Students who normally ride on a specialty bus participated in drills with the smaller ones.
It took less than two hours for all of the students to complete the safety training. Beardsley said drills are also planned at the middle and high schools, but with larger student populations the set-up is done differently.
Rowe’s assistant principal who oversaw the drills, Kim Desjardins, added that the pre-kindergarten students will also go through a separate practice.
“It takes 15-20 minutes for each drill,” Desjardins said. “The kids took it seriously. And I got a lot of positive feedback from our teachers, as well. They were interested in learning about the different safety features for when they use them for field trips. It was great awareness for them, too.
“The kids were well-behaved. They really seemed to enjoy radioing into transportation. We want them to be as aware and prepared as possible.”
The drills are also a useful way for drivers to learn more about using positive behavior interventions and supports on their buses.
“We had the drivers speak to the students prior to the drills,” Desjardins said. “To reinforce bus expectations, following the PBIS model.
“We talked about safety: how to keep our hands and arms inside the bus and not put them outside [the windows]; sitting properly and remaining in our seats; being respectful to each other because the bus driver has an important job and kids need to follow the same rules they’re expected to follow at school; and keeping a reasonable noise level.”
Like teachers inside the school building, drivers have a supply of paper “tiger paws” they will distribute to students who follow PBIS expectations. In turn, they can use them in prize raffles during Rowe’s monthly PBIS assembly. Beyond reinforcing positive behaviors, awarding tiger paws helps drivers and students establish positive relationships and work as a team.
“You can never really train enough,” Beardsley said. “Hopefully, they’ll never have to use it. But the same mindset, especially when it comes to safety, the more prepared we are the better off everyone will be in an instance where we do have to use it.”
