How do we take our students to task when they vandalise buses?
There is no justification to how the students behaved. They ended up breaking a window when they attempted to throw in their bags and climb through the windows rather than climbing onto the bus through the door in an orderly manner.
We have heard one too many times how buses have been vandalised by school students.
In Suva, Shore Buses used to be targeted often and now Classic Buses have been vandalised and what’s worse is that students verbally abused the bus driver as well.
Who should be held responsible for this behaviour? What actions have been taken against students who have been identified in the past and what action will be taken against students who were part of the group who vandalised Classic Buses?
In Fiji, we do not often have our judiciary imposing community service. In the most recent case of Classic Buses, the school should round up the students responsible, take them to the Classic Buses garage and get them to fix the damage they caused. And they should then get the students to raise money from doing odd jobs such as grass cutting or car washing and hand over all the proceeds to the bus company.
Land Transport Authority Lautoka
Branch Acting Manager, Semi Tuinaceva, said schools need to closely monitor the behaviour of students on buses. But in this case the principal of Ba Provincial Free Bird Institute in Lautoka, Maweliki Nasau, has made some alarming comments. He said the students reacted badly because the bus was late.
There is no justification to how the students behaved. They ended up breaking a window when they attempted to throw in their bags and climb through the windows rather than climbing onto the bus through the door in an orderly manner.
Master Nasau said this retaliation only comes when the treatment of the students is poor. This is the most outrageous justification. We cannot have people in authority justifying such behaviour.
The good Master should join the students in Classic Buses garage and supervise his students while they clean up the mess they made.
The Land Transport Authority Lautoka branch acting manager, Semi Tuinaceva, says schools need to closely monitor the behaviour of students on buses.
This was after students from a Ba Provincial Free Bird Institute in Lautoka were alleged to have damaged the rear view mirror of one of the Classic Buses and verbally abused the driver on Tuesday.
“Two busses had been prepared so they drop primary school students first then they go up to the school at quarter to five, but now students are knocking off at 3.30pm so students normally walk down,” he said.
“It is advisable that teachers talk to the students because the service has been provided and they should honour that commitment and not damage the transport that is taking care of their lives while they are being transported.”
Mr Tuinaceva said there were also issues with business for Classic Busses because they had surrendered a few of their busses.
Classic Busses driver Atish Chand said the incident happened when the bus was driving along Kermode Road towards the school.
“They punched the rear view mirror. I was shouting at them to stop because if anything happens they will always blame the driver,” he said.
“They jumped into the bus from the sides, but luckily a teacher came and they stopped, but before that, they swore at me and I don’t mind the swearing, but they had no respect for people around them.” School principal Maweliki Nasau said the reaction from students was due to the buses’ delay and students wanted to go home on time.
“When students had stopped it to get on, most rushed in because they wanted to get home, but one of the bags caught on to the window and that’s how it got damaged,” he said.
“The frustration of waiting could have made the students act that way because we finish at 3.30pm and the bus comes after 4pm so students will only retaliate if they’re treatment is not good.”