PITTSFIELD – A particularly unruly school bus population has prompted a new awareness among SAD 53 school administrators and Cyr Bus officials who met with parents Thursday night to air their grievances.

It also has prompted promises of a new “get tough” attitude on offenders that will be aided by the use of video cameras.

The bus safety and discipline discussions began several weeks ago, Superintendent Michael Gallagher said, after a bus was forced to pull off the road when an eighth-grader and a fourth-grader got into a fight and one of the pupils attempted to open the rear emergency exit door and jump from the bus.

Several parents at the meeting said they have removed their children from that particular bus run due to concerns for their safety.

Since that incident, parents have been privately meeting, and SAD 53 held a workshop with bus drivers on effective discipline.

SAD 53 contracts with Cyr Bus for transportation of about 800 students, and everyone at the meeting agreed that driving a school bus is a difficult, demanding job.

“It’s not a job I want,” Warsaw Middle School Assistant Principal Dewey Kane said.

“There are some very difficult situations on all buses,” Gallagher said. “But without a good strategy and adequate training, the rules don’t do any good.”

Terry Harmon, supervisor at Cyr’s Detroit bus garage, said he has difficulty finding drivers and is still seeking qualified people for this school year.

Still, he said, he was able to put a new driver on the bus run that is causing the most problems and promised that a video camera will be active on every run.

Harmon said eight buses now are running and three cameras are rotated among them.

Parents who attended said active cameras would address some of their concerns, including monitoring problem riders and resolving disputes with parents who do not believe their children violated the rules.

Some of the other issues the parents raised included requiring bus drivers to be trained in CPR and first aid, instituting a better communication system and parent notification process, shortening the length of some bus runs, adding more buses so overcrowding is eliminated, and consistently implementing the rules.

Parents Pam Lawler and Tina Bernier said they wanted the drivers to enforce more effectively the existing bus rules.

“Parents are the ones that need to step up to the plate,” Bernier said. “But we are not getting information from the bus drivers. If our kids aren’t behaving, we need to know, and not before it has progressed to them being kicked off.”

Bernier said that consistency in enforcing rules will ensure that all bus riders are safe.

“When my son was kicked off the bus, I didn’t know for a week and a half,” said Elaine Sanders.

The parents asked to be notified by telephone when there is a problem, and it was agreed that a new form will be created to document violations.

Students will be handed the form, with the violation checked off, and will not be allowed back on the bus without a parental signature. Harmon said each parent would be contacted by telephone to ensure that they saw the violation form.

Gallagher invited all parents to participate in a subcommittee that will continue to look at ways to make the bus runs safe.