Bus driver wants pupils to be ordered to wear face masks
A SCHOOL bus driver in Bridgend wants the council to make it compulsory for pupils to wear face masks while travelling to and from school.
Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) currently recommends students wear face masks on school transport, but it is not mandatory – and the driver is calling for them to change their stance.
“We’re putting ourselves at risk, we’re putting our families at risk,” said the driver, who did not want to be named.
“The last thing you want to be doing is taking it home to them. I sort of dread going in at the moment because you don’t know what you’re going to wake up with the next morning.”
In Wales, it is up to the local authority to decide whether pupils wear face masks on school transport.
Pembrokeshire council has made it compulsory for secondary school pupils to wear face masks on school transport, recommending primary school pupils do the same.
Pupils travelling to schools on commercial buses already need to wear masks.
Bridgend council is not recommending pupils with medical conditions or certain additional learning needs wear face masks in schools or on school transport.
It is distributing around 60,000 face masks to pupils and staff in the county borough. Secondary school pupils can get five face coverings and a storage bag for them from their schools for the academic year.
The driver said he currently takes a full coach of around 50 pupils to school and back with less than 10 wearing face masks.
“Only a handful of children actually do wear a mask. People just think ‘this will never happen to me’ and just carry on as normal.
“Now that it’s mandatory in shops for example I don’t see why it can’t be done for us as well.”
From Monday, September 14, people in Wales have been required to wear face masks in shops and other indoor public spaces. The decision was announced last week after it was discovered 20 people in every 100,000 in Wales now had Covid-19.
Pupils in Bridgend tend to be transported to and from school on coaches. Unlike public buses, they do not have a barrier between drivers and passengers.
“They’re sort of open to the elements,” said the driver. “All the children are walking past as they’re getting on and off.
“You do sort of sit there and listen out for coughs and you’re thinking, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to catch?’”
He said he was surprised to learn social distancing would not be implemented on school buses when schools reopened this month.
He has bought his own face masks to wear at work and said the bus company that employs him gave drivers hand sanitiser, antibacterial spray, paper towels and a plastic visor before they went back to work.
“We’ve been asked to wipe down the surfaces when we go in and make sure we wipe our controls and everything just to be sure.
“I tend to say to the children, ‘Don’t leave any rubbish on the bus,’ because due to the current situation I don’t want to be picking anything up and I don’t think anybody else does at the moment.”
He is also concerned he may be travelling with pupils who are asymptomatic.
“We’re in a confined space with all those children as well.
“The majority of the drivers on school contracts tend to be older and so they’re at a greater risk of having problems with this virus.”
More than 470 school pupils and staff members are self-isolating in Bridgend county borough due to positive Covid-19 cases.
Schools with confirmed cases include Llangynwyd Primary School, Mynydd Cynffig Primary School, and Brynteg School.
On September 7, more than 200 pupils at Bryntirion Comprehensive School were asked to self-isolate for 14 days following the confirmation of a Covid-19 case at the school.
The driver said he has not received clear guidance on what school bus drivers should do if they test positive for Covid-19 or if one of their passengers tests positive.
“Say for argument’s sake a pupil at [my school] had to self-isolate, well what happens to the driver who’s picked those children up in the morning? Is he supposed to selfisolate as well? We can’t seem to get the answer to those questions. Nobody seems to know.
“There could be a child from every year group on the coach so it’s just a minefield really.
“It’s quite a simple thing, it’s not a lot to ask for every child to wear a mask on a bus as far as I’m concerned. I think we’ve all got to get used to it anyway for wherever else we go.”
First Minister Mark Drakeford said masks would not be mandatory in workplaces and wearing them in school did “not seem proportionate”.
Face coverings are recommended in Welsh secondary schools when social distancing is “unlikely to be maintained”, but not compulsory. Schools and councils can decide how this works.
A BCBC spokesperson said: “The council has liaised closely with school transport operators as private businesses and has provided detailed guidance to them on school transport requirements, including the preparation of vehicles, loading of passengers, ventilation and cleaning.
“The local authority has also undertaken a full risk assessment of school transport arrangements and advised transport operators of the appropriate controls that are required to be in place to ensure the safety of both transport staff and pupils.
“Individual operators are the employers of drivers and passenger assistants. Operators are responsible for ensuring this guidance is shared with drivers and passenger assistants, and they are fully apprised of their responsibilities.
“The council is following Welsh Government advice on the use of face coverings on home-toschool transport. At present, there is no requirement for pupils to wear face masks on any dedicated school transport.
“The local authority will continue to follow Welsh Government guidance and work closely with Public Health Wales to ensure all users of school transport are as safe as possible.”