STAFFORD — Danielle Sullivan has been driving a Stafford County school bus for the past five years.
“They don’t talk about this stuff in training,” she said.
She was one of about 300 drivers from across the county that converged on Colonial Forge High School on July 25 to learn things like how to deal with an irate parent, or how to alert police if a child brought a gun onto the bus during the trip to or from school, turning the ride to school into an “active shooter” situation.
Sheriff David Decatur and his staff provided the training, instructing them to pick up bus radio and call for help, or to call 911 anytime they are faced with a potentially dangerous situation.
“We’d rather he ahead of a problem rather than trying to keep up,” a deputy told the crowd, encouraging them to use words like “code red” to tip off 911 dispatchers to the severity of their situation.
He also encouraged them to get children to throw books or objects at an intruder on a bus. If faced with a gun, drivers were showed how to grab the gun and try to take it from the gunman, taking the risk of being shot.
“Whatever you do, you need to be committed to act,” said the deputy. “This decision, this violence could change your life forever.”
“With our bus drivers, oftentimes people don’t think, but they have a huge responsibility,” said Stafford County Sheriff David Decatur told Potomac Local. “They have a bus with a lot of children and they’re normally the only adult on board with a lot of kids to supervise.”
While Sullivan said she’s never had a firearm appear on her bus, she does deal with about four irate parents per year. Many are angry with drivers for disciplining their children, she adds.
After a morning session inside the high school’s auditorium, drivers boarded school buses parked outside to practice what they learned.
Stafford County school bus drivers take 18,000 to classes each day on more than 260 school buses. The Stafford County Public Schools 2019-20 school year starts on August 12.
