Students misbehaving on buses a major headache

School children fighting on Transport Board buses continues to be a major headache for the Barbados Transport Board, which is forced to spend thousands to repair damages.

Addressing Parliament yesterday, Minister of Transport and Works Michael Lashley said there is much evidence that the Barbados Transport Board has been having issues with students misbehaving on buses.

He said last year almost $16 000 was spent to repair buses damaged through fights among school children, driving the Board to develop rules on how students must treat the state’s property, in addition to hosting meetings with the management of schools to discuss the concern.

“I have an issue with it because after it has been reported, some parents come in and decide that they are going to pay Transport Board. I have a problem with this because to my mind, it is criminal damage, so we must not open the floodgates that if there is a fight among students and they damage the property that they can come in and pay Transport Board,” he said.

“It is having also an impact on our workers at Transport Board because we had to call in people to counsel them because there are some instances where they have been attacked,” Lashley added.

The Minister also revealed that given the fact that 90 per cent of reported incidents on Transport Board buses involved school children fighting, his Ministry has asked the Royal Barbados Police Force to frequent the bus routes where it has been recognised that students are damaging buses.

He said the Ministry of Finance has agreed to purchase at least 34 new buses to assist with the establishment of a dedicated school bus service.

According to Lashley, plans are in the making to place cameras on these special buses, to be monitored by Police.

“I am amazed that sometimes some adults in close proximity of the fights don’t even try to part it or instruct the driver to take the bus to the nearest Police station,” he said.

Lashley, who reminded that Government’s decision to allow school children to travel on Transport Board buses free was an effort to keep them away from the negative behaviour being displayed on privately owned public service vehicles (PSVs), explained that recently he encountered a minibus in which there were a number of school children, playing music that contained inappropriate content.

Stating that he was concerned about the minibus subculture, Lashley said there was a proposal in the amendment to the Road Traffic Act to ban the playing of music on PSVs.

“So what the school children is encountering now as a result of them having to travel on the bus and having to listen to those type of dirty lyrics ... that will be stopped as soon as that Road Traffic Act is brought to Parliament,” he said. (AH)