On the Buses With Miranda Divine

Another muddled tome from Miranda Divine, commenting on a widely reported incident where a bus driver, sick of racist taunts from his school children passengers, drove his cargo to the local bus depot rather than complete the route.

Commenting on the public's reaction to the incident ....

But sympathy for one bus driver does not mean there aren't serious problems with Sydney's school buses. And, regardless of what Transport Minister John Watkins and the rest of the tut tut brigade say, it's not the children's fault.

Miranda thinks that the appalling behaviour is due to overcrowding and unreliable services.

The drama is a symptom of a wider problem. On two mornings last week I know of, four school buses drove straight past a group of 10-year-old boys waiting at a North Shore bus stop, leaving them stranded and potentially in danger.

Bollocks, Miranda! The kids racially abused the driver, it's got nothing to do with an unreliable service in another part of the city!

Oh, and, in addition, it's also the drivers fault! He's obviously too thin skinned.

But Gomes [the driver] should never have been placed in such a position. For some people driving a bus full of noisy children is stressful. For others it is fine. Why subject the child-averse driver to a school run?

Child averse?

Chilean-born Gomes told Baonza that children on the 748 disobeyed his instruction not to sit on a step at the back of the bus, which posed a danger. They began singing, mimicking his accent and racially taunting him, beginning with "wog", moving through to "Scottish pig" and "Jamaican" when he didn't bite.

No person should have to put up with this sort of stuff. Vetting drivers to find someone who's immune to this type of behaviour, as Miranda suggests, is not the answer. It just covers up the problem of kids who think racial vilification is acceptable.

Teaching kids some manners would be a good start. Knowing how publicity adverse private schools can be, I'm sure that Mater Maria Catholic College will be implementing something along these lines in the near future.