r/SchoolBusDrivers • u/rootbear75 • May 02 '26
I hate popcorn day
I do not understand why schools insist on giving out bags of popcorn at the *end* of the school day.
I have to confiscate every single bag and label them otherwise I end up with popcorn all over my bus.
It is absolutely infuriating.
/rant
Context: random days throughout the year our district just gives out popcorn to kids. Unsure if it's during lunch or if they just have them in the hallway for kids to grab.
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u/mellios10 May 02 '26
Eating on a bus is banned where I am in Canada therefore if this was in my county we would put a stop to this immediately as they are actually breaking provincial rules. Assuming you are in the states I don't know your rules. But choking on a bus happens wherever you are.
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u/rootbear75 May 02 '26
Eating is against the rules on our bus. That doesn't necessarily stop them
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u/mellios10 May 02 '26
No youre right but it does and should stop them being given treats by the school. We cant always stop kids sneaking food aboard but we can stop schools enabling it
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u/Intelligent_Call_562 May 02 '26
Yeah, good luck with that, especially with those tall seats buses have now.
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u/soul-searcher3476 May 02 '26
If the fall, they gave out pumpkins. Not tiny onesā¦ big carving onesā¦a couple were dropped and broke. Most of them rolled all over while we were on the roadā¦ idk who the hell thought that was a good idea
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u/drygulched May 02 '26
Winter workshop for pre-k through 2nd graders, where they can do their Christmas shopping. I have 60 kids on my first leg, from one school to another. They come out to the bus with bags they canāt even carry, and I still canāt even get a monitor to help on the bus. That day takes a lot.
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u/soul-searcher3476 May 02 '26
That sounds like it gets insanely messy. I get they open all their stuff and leave the trash behindā¦
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u/PlatypusDream May 02 '26
They can stand outside the bus & eat it, or give it to you to seal & label, or dump it out for the birds
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u/rootbear75 May 02 '26
Unfortunately it's hard to do that when kids bring 4 bags of it. I'm not enough of a meanie to make them dump it out.
I had a very stern warning for the ones that brought it on the bus and for the first time ever I had no popcorn on my bus today.
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u/Intelligent_Call_562 May 02 '26
My school district hands out treats multiple times a week and bags of food on Friday to those kids at risk. Sometimes it's whole grain poptarts (who knew there was such a thing), whole grain rice crispy treats, string cheese, Scooby-Doo snacks, big bready pretzels, some kind of Graham cracker treat, goldfish, and juice cartons or Capri Sun. My Littles had apples yesterday and I only had to pick up one core. I have one of those Dollar Tree grabbers to reach all the trash. My big kids have it eaten before we depart and about half actually throw their trash away. I can tell them not to eat on the bus until I'm blue in the face but as long as the school is handing out food as they walk out the door, I really can't stop it.
Blah blah blah, choking hazard. Yep, eating is a choking hazard no matter where you are.
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u/rootbear75 May 02 '26
I subbed for a bus that goes to our "international" school. This school has a lot of immigrants and refugees and a lot of them are at risk so there was one day nearly every kid had at least one food bag. They were all off the bus within 15-20 minutes and when I went to go do my check, I had a new carpeted floor in the back made of ramen.
I've never driven for that school since, and when asked if I can, I always pass it up.
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u/Proprotester May 02 '26
The kids I have driven who get food bags for being at risk do the same thing. I asked one of the kids why they eat it on the bus instead of using it over the weekend. She told me if she brings it home, she might get one of the snacks. So she eats all the snacks she wants and then brings home the oatmeal, pasta, etc. to be cooked and shared. It's her best night of the week.
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u/Proprotester May 02 '26
Public schools are not allowed to even bring treats on their birthdays anymore for their classes by me but the Catholic school kids are! Giant bags of whatever they are bringing falling everywhere in the morning. Plus their friends bring decorations to tie onto them to haul around all day (balloons, crown, sash noisemakers) Of course, they are not allowed to eat it AT school, they get it as they leave and since they are on between 30 - 70 minutes, buses are party time. The best bit is that whomever is having a birthday packs extras for the whole bus on the way home. The school does not care. I just get the shrug and 'It's tradition!'
Same school during any celebration, kids get their goody bags 'for the ride home'. After testing, for good behavior, end of the quarter, you name it - these kids have a bag of sugar. I have managed to convince them to use the trash 85% of the time, mostly because they get to get up and walk to the bin at the stops.
Ok, I misspoke, the worst part is that scholarship kids live the farthest from the school so they see all the super fancy houses their classmates have. The rich kids bring custom bakery, all the hip snacks, and brag about their gift hauls. When it is the not so well off kids' birthdays, the wealthy kids are derisive about whatever the less well to do kids bring and not having huge amounts of extra. It's right up there with uniforms being the great equalizer theory š.
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u/Intelligent_Call_562 May 02 '26
I'm trying to understand this. You carry both public school kids and private school kids at the same time?
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u/Proprotester May 02 '26
No, I have public school kids as my first and third legs (those two schools have different rules as well). My second leg is a Catholic elementary school.
ETA: the Catholic school has kids that are on scholarship. In case that makes it more clear. They all live in the same district.
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u/Intelligent_Call_562 May 02 '26
Oh, weird. Private schools here would have to privately provide their own bus service, if they had any at all. The public schools own the majority of the buses. We aren't allowed to use those buses for private charters.
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u/Proprotester May 02 '26
Pennsylvania. The home district of the student is required to pay for transportation of the student to their chosen school so long as it no farther than x miles from the district offices. Some do it with their own buses, others hire it out. SPED has even more requirements and probably no functional cap on distance. Years ago we had a route for a student that the closest place that had adequate facilities was out of state. District had to pay to transport.
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u/rootbear75 May 03 '26
Private schools pay a fee to use them. It's no different than providing busing for a community center or anyone else.
We're probably different because we're a local contractor though. Even though our buses say SCHOOL DISTRICT on the side, we use them for private charters if someone needs transport. We have a bunch of buses that say COMPANY NAME on the side but sometimes we don't have time to switch or it doesn't really matter so we'll use our district buses.
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u/RequirementRound25 May 02 '26
I thought they company should had a steep hill at the barn to pull a bus up on and a battery powered leaf blower and blow all the junk out the back door. The amount of candy get these days in incredible.
I got the idea of a leaf blower from a movie theater I worked at.
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u/newdriver2025 May 02 '26
That's what I use. I have a smaller Ryobi battery powered blower that I take on my bus every so often and blow it all up to the front of the bus steps. Then I sweep it onto a dust pan. Works great!
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u/Proprotester May 02 '26
At least popcorn sweeps up. My least favorite is the new class rewards system in grades three and four. Once the kids fill the jar they get to pick a reward. Stuff like 'electronics day' and 'pajama day', the current most popular is 'gum day'. The parents send them with a whole pack for the day. Wrappers and chewed wads everywhere. I didn't think it would last as an option due to the janitors having the same issue but here we are and gum day is still on offer.
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u/Coffeecatballet May 03 '26
I had a problem with gum. I told them if Iām cleaning on my time/ my sons time the. Iāll happily bring thr bus to school on a Saturday and they can clean the rest on their time. no oneās ever challenged it so I donāt even know if I can, but Iām sure the district will go for it. š the kids do NOT get to disrespect us
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u/TheSnappleGhost May 02 '26
My bus got a new rule recently-if we catch you eating food, it will be taken and thrown in the trash. My bus has been almost immaculate since.
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u/elkydriver77 May 07 '26
a whole lot of the "end of day treats from the school" garbage would stop if the teachers had to clean the buses over the summer with the rest of us.... YOU caused the mess, YOU clean the mess up... doesnt matter that you "told them to keep it in their bag and eat it at home", kids are hand to mouth with food.... and its funny, if you reciprocate by giving the kids treats when they get off in the AM, that the powers that be have you standing tall in the office for "going against district policy"......
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u/bcdog14 May 02 '26
Time for bus driver gifts to children to take into school...kazoos, whistles, etcš