I'm horrified... and terrified...

What do you do if you find out that your teenage daughter has been harassed on the bus?  And not just a little harassed, not just picked on or laughed at.  What do you do when you find out that a group of boys is sexually harassing your teenage daughter on the bus. Every day.  To the point where she doesn't want to ride the bus anymore.

And the boys aren't just making comments, either.  The harassment includes grabbing her, dropping their pants in front of her, and rubbing themselves.

What do you do if you find out that she's told her bus driver about it and the bus driver told her to "deal with it yourself."

Do you call the school, the police, the boys parents? Do you just keep your daughter of the bus and say nothing for fear of having her deal with the repercussions of calling the boys out?

It saddens me, deeply, to know that these things happen in places where we, as parents, are trusting other adults to keep our children safe. But it doesn't shock me.  I remember the bus when I was in school. I remember how unruly it could get, how one driver who has to focus on the road would never have been able to control the amount of kids he or she was supposed to be in charge of. 

But sexual harassment was, thankfully, not something I had to deal with on the bus.  And it scares me to know that I might have to have my kids ride those buses when they are older. Right now they ride buses with kids ranging in age from 5 to 11 and these kinds of concerns haven't come up.  But next year Bug goes to middle school, where things get more complicated and meaner. 

I'm just horrified.

Ah, the joys of motherhood and school board transportation

So we're getting back into the swing of things and Bug has been going to school for the past 3 days. Now, because Bug goes to one elementary school and Goober and Munchkin go to another I have to rely on bus transportation in the afternoons to get them all home. It's not an option to do it any other way since I can't be at two places at the same time.

Since Bug's ruptured appendix, he can't lift heavy things. It causes him pain and the doctor says he shouldn't do it anyhow. So I purchased him a rolling backpack. (I challenge you to find a rolling backpack in your town at this time of year. Serious, I challenge you!)

Every day when the bus drops him off I walk up to the bus and I help him bring his backpack down the steps. No big deal.

Today Bug's bus driver tells me:

"You gonna have ta do sumpin'! Bug cries evry aftahnoon cuz he caint lift dat heavy backpack up dees steps!"

So I basically looked at her like she was crazy and told her she needs to HELP HIM THEN. Seriously? Is it so hard for her to get up off the seat and help him bring the backpack up the steps? What the hell am I supposed to do?

I swear, if that woman bitches at me again tomorrow I'm gonna go postal on her.

/endrant