Aussies torn over bus driver's response to 'unruly' kids

“If I was the parent of one of those kids, the kid would definitely be in trouble, but I'd be incredibly furious at the bus driver and I'd be raising hell about it.”

A Brisbane bus driver is receiving praise online after kicking children off his service due to their unruly and reckless behaviour.

However, not everyone is happy about the decision, with others calling him out for negligence, and potentially even breaking the law.

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“Hope to see him [and] more people like him!”

A Queensland man has taken to Reddit after witnessing what he thought was a positive interaction on his local bus.

The interaction, which happened on Brisbane’s 100 bus - notorious for dangerous behaviour - saw a driver kick off a group of kids after they began popping balloons, distracting both the driver and the other passengers.

“Was [on] bus 100 otw back home with my mother when 6 kids looking 13yo or younger climbed aboard to the back of the bus [and started] popping balloons every 10 seconds thinking it's funny. It was such a huge nuisance that some of the passengers next to them forced themselves to switch seats to the front, and despite sitting fairly far in the middle, my ears started hurting from the pops,” he wrote.

“After about 3 stops later, the bus driver came out of the driver seat, walked up to those kids and ordered them to exit the bus along with their balloons or otherwise he would call the higher authorities. Luckily there was no argument from them and they just stepped out altogether before they started smirking from outside.”

The man said that the driver did the right thing, hoping to see more drivers take action against ‘unruly’ kids.

“I've been a witness to many undisciplined kids [and] teens in all my years here, and this is most likely the [first] time I've seen the bus driver stepping up to deal with the problem in order to protect his own passengers from any possible harm or excessive nuisance to them,” he said.

“Hope to see him [and] more people like him!”

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“Wish more people put belligerent children in their place”

Many commenters on the post agreed with the man, saying that given the appalling behaviour they’d also witnessed from kids on public transport, it’s a positive change seeing drivers take action.

“I used to catch the 560 home from school, and it was always packed with kids. A few dickheads would push the button for every stop, slowing the trip down immensely. Eventually, we got this bus driver whose response to this would be to stop, and if nobody got off he'd read a page of a novel. The dickheads stopped doing that pretty quickly,” one commenter said.

“Wish more people put belligerent children in their place,” another agreed.

"I'd be incredibly furious at the bus driver"

However, not everyone was in the same boat.

A number of commenters were worried that the driver was putting his position at risk by forcing the young passengers off the bus.

“What he should have done is say we are waiting here for police, and let them leave on their own. Ordering them off can put the driver in a very bad position. It's why a lot of drivers on buses/trains etc don't intervene, it's not worth the risk or effort. The parents don't care, the police don't care, the offenders don't care, so why would you put yourself at risk?” one person said.

“He was probably going against policy by doing that so that's probably why you haven't seen it before,” another added.

Others were more concerned about the wellbeing of the children, referencing the death of Daniel Morcombe - who was abducted while waiting for a bus in 2003.

“As much as badly behaved kids are annoying, that bus driver did the wrong thing, and faces a real (and deserved) risk of losing his job - Bus drivers are very explicitly prohibited from refusing transport to minors. We have a situation now where very young children were abandoned god knows where, and anything might have happened to them. The correct thing to do was for the bus driver to notify the relevant authorities and have them come on board the bus at the next appropriate stop to deal with the situation,” said one commenter.

“If I was the parent of one of those kids, the kid would definitely be in trouble, but I'd be incredibly furious at the bus driver and I'd be raising hell about it. Nobody wants another Daniel Morcombe situation.”

“Pretty sure that’s illegal. Doesn’t the Daniel Morcombe law specifically state children can’t be left behind,” another agreed.

“Geez, he could definitely be fired for that after Morcombe?” said a third.

Originally published as Aussies torn over bus driver's response to 'unruly' kids