Covid: Pupils 'flouting' school bus face covering rules
- Published
All pupils over the age of five are now urged to wear masks on buses
A bus company has written to schools across Glasgow after complaints that many pupils are refusing to wear face coverings.
In a strongly-worded letter, First Bus said a "significant number" of students were choosing to "flout the rules".
In some cases, pupils were putting on face coverings when asked to do so by staff, but removed them again once they had moved on.
The firm warned it would be reporting cases to police if breaches continued.
School buses were initially exempt from rules on face coverings on public transport in Scotland, but the guidance was modified in late August, and all children over the age of five are now required to wear them.
First Bus said teams carrying out spot checks had found that "a significant number of school pupils across the network are not complying with Scottish government guidance".
The letter continued: "During one such exercise, our teams have approached a number of pupils and asked where their face covering is and the pupil has then pulled it out of their bag and then complied with the request from our team to put it on.
"However, the moment the team switched decks, the pupils immediately removed their coverings again and the team had to re-engage and advise strongly that they must keep their coverings on."
Drivers can issue "reminder tickets" but have no powers to enforce the wearing of face coverings
The letter said the problem was not that pupils did not know the rules - but were rather choosing to ignore the guidance.
"The fact that they have the coverings in their bags is proof of that itself. It's the more concerning behaviour that they simply choose to flout the rules in this regard," the letter said.
Bus drivers have no powers to enforce the use of face coverings although they can issue "reminder tickets" to passengers who fail to comply with the guidance.
On average the firm said it issued about 150 such reminders a day - about 1,000 a week - across all its services.
First Glasgow operations director, Duncan Cameron, said most passengers were compliant but a small number of services were causing difficulties for drivers.
He said: "Our drivers do a difficult job in normal circumstances and have been a credit to company, the city and the wider industry with their efforts of keeping people moving throughout the pandemic.
"The introduction of mandatory face coverings on public transport has made their job even harder as it is very difficult to enforce from behind a protective screen."
Mr Cameron said the response from the majority of schools had been excellent.
