Managing Mischief

We asked our resident Student Behavior Liaison to explain the origin and purpose of Student Transit's Mischief Program. Here's what he had to say:

No Judgment

"I worked with at-risk kids at a charter school here in Eau Claire while driving a school bus. We were trained in behavior modification techniques, and when I decided to leave the school district, I saw an opportunity to help other drivers deal with situations on the bus that would be intimidating to them."

"There are kids who, for whatever reason, are oppositional. They're living in chaos or are in a terrible time of their life. They can't seem to make it work. And that requires a different approach."

"You have to try as hard as you can to be non-judgmental. You don't know what kind of baggage this kid brings on the bus. You don't know if he had a major fight with his mom that morning. You don't know if something bad happened the night before. The expectation of a particular behavior level is still there, but it changes our approach. And approach matters. You don't yell at a kid who doesn't know how to read for not knowing how to read."

"You have to tell them, 'I'm not mad at you. Nobody's mad at you.' It just needs to be an enjoyable ride for everybody and as calm as we can."

"If we don't address certain behaviors appropriately, we're missing an opportunity to at least show these kids at some level that there's a different way to handle situations than yelling and threatening and hitting."

"If a kid wants to cause problems, you can't stop them, but there's another avenue we can go down. We have some kids who are suspended from the bus temporarily, but that's not the goal. We have other kids who are suspended off the bus for the rest of the year, and that's not the goal either, but those are the kids who have just flat out refused to try to make things better."

"You have to get the kids to own their behavior, accept the behavior, and fix the behavior. And this applies to us too. If you blow it, own it, fix it, move on. And when the kids see that, they develop a relationship."

Reporting Mischief

"The Mischief Program is a reporting system where what happens on the bus gets reported to the schools. It's a system to help the bus become calmer and more welcoming for everybody involved, including the driver."

"When you write a Mischief on a student, you tell them, so they know there might be a visit from the principal. Nobody likes a surprise visit from the principal. Let them know, 'I'm not mad at you, but this happened. You did this, I'm doing this, and now this may happen.'"

"What you're doing there, in a roundabout way, is developing trust. They don't like what they heard, but they know that 'the bus driver said he's going to write me up, and he did so that I can trust him.' This makes you approachable in case the kid needs to discuss something else. That's where the relationships stop or begin. And often, if the kid knows you, they'll behave better for you because you're not the enemy anymore."

"I've had meetings with principals, parents, the kids, and the counselors to address the behavior and how to improve it. I ask the kid, 'Why are we here?' And, invariably, the kid says, 'Because I'm not being very good on the bus.'"

"So, I say, 'You're right. Let's fix that. I know there are seven adults here, and it's kind of scary. I don't dismiss that, but we're here to help the situation. It has worked for the driver and monitor, the other kids, and you, so what can we do to make it better? And what can we do to help you make it better?'"

"I let the kid make a plan. I want to know what he thinks. Is this something he can do? Unless the kid agrees to it, it doesn't matter. At the end of the meeting, I get them to commit to a couple of things. I tell them, 'If you could just do two things better, we have improved. Let's work on those two things.'"

"When the drivers' monitors write a report, it comes to me, and then I send it to the schools. When they deal with it, they tell me what they did and send it back to me, and then I tell the drivers. That's what we call closing the loop."

The Results

"We have expectations. We expect everybody to meet them, but some kids are more able to than others. We're not trying to change the kids' lives like we did when I was in the school district because we get them for 10 to 20 minutes a day."

"But, we can be part of that process. And a big part of that is to hold the kids accountable for their behavior without demeaning them. It's okay to make mistakes. We fix them and move on."

"I try to be non-confrontational with them, non-judgmental, and the kids accept me and my approach more so because of it. I don't have any preconceived expectations, but I still hold them accountable for their behavior."

"I tell them, 'I'm not going to get mad at you over your behavior. You make mistakes. People make mistakes; I'll help you fix them. I'm not going to work harder than you. You will work harder than me. I will help you. You're doing the heavy lifting. And, because you don't know what the heavy lifting looks like, I'll show you what it looks like.'"

"I tell the drivers and monitors to make connections. You are the first face these students see school-wise in the morning and the last face they see school-wise at night. Let's make our part a calm and welcoming interaction."

"We have a great system in place here. We support our drivers. The school supports the drivers. The parents, by and large, support the drivers. We have an excellent relationship. We work closely with every stakeholder involved to determine what the best option is and what works best for the kid -- because they're just kids."

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