A bus driver was beaten in the head and a passenger punched in the face in two separate incidents over the weekend that highlighted problems faced by Madison Metro.
According to the Madison Police Department, four teenagers assaulted the 45-year-old driver Thursday after he asked them to get off a bus near the city's North Transfer Point. When the driver told the foursome that he had a picture of them on his cell-phone camera, they tried to steal the phone by beating him, police said.
In the other incident, a 15-year-old attacked a passenger at the West Transfer Point after an argument on a bus Friday, police said.
A large source of the violence on busses is the city's high school and middle school students who ride the bus to and from school. From January 2004 to April 2005, there were 78 assaults reported on supplemental school busses alone, said Metro Transit Service Manager Anne Gullickson.
Bus drivers no longer feel safe on the job. According to James Wheeler, captain of the Police Department's South District, teenagers' unruly behavior has become unbearable at times for drivers.
They're feeling intimidated by the kids,\ Wheeler said.
But, Wheeler said, students causing problems is nothing new. Ed Holmes, Madison West High School principal, echoed Wheeler's sentiments.
""Kids have always acted out,"" Holmes said.
Holmes also stressed that only a tiny part of Madison's student population is actually causing problems on the bus. Still, it is hard to control what those students do on their way home, outside of school and outside of their principals' power.
""Once the kids leave school, we don't have much control over what they do,"" Holmes said.
Wheeler said cameras planned for several busses and the South Transfer Point would never solve all of Metro's problems. He stressed the need for a community effort to curb student misbehavior both on busses and at transfer points, where arguments from school often turn into fist fights with enthusiastic audiences.
Wheeler also added that high school students are not the only troublemakers, citing police calls long after peak hours for student transportation.
""It's not just the school kids,"" Wheeler said.
In the past, plans to install cameras on Metro busses ran into opposition from both drivers and citizens who were uncomfortable with Metro authorities watching their every move on the bus.
But such opposition has not been a factor this time around, Gullickson said, adding that drivers pushed the current plan more than anyone else.
""They're pretty isolated out there on the bus,"" Gullickson said.
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