Driver says kids tell on parents

Count on the bad kid in a pinch, a longtime school bus driver says.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HOWLAND -- Don't want everyone to know your private business? Don't let your kids ride the school bus.
Susan Mangino should know. She listened to pupils squeal on their parents on the bus she drove for 33 years.
"They like to tell tales on their parents," said the 69-year-old Mangino, who recently retired from driving for the Howland School District.
Parents drinking alcohol and arguing? The children are listening, Mangino said. "Kids tell on their parents," she said.
Most of the children are candid, although "some wouldn't tell you the truth if you paid them," she added.
If Mangino didn't pick up on the latest scuttlebutt, her husband, Francis, does -- since he's been driving a bus in Howland for 12 years.
Mangino, the mother of two sons and a daughter, decided in 1973 to make some extra money when her oldest son graduated from Howland. She used the money to send him "care packages" while in college.
"It turned out to be quite a career," she said, adding: "Some days were better than others."
Some memories
For example, Mangino recalled a small boy who had lost control of himself and dirtied his pants. Unfortunately for those in the bus, the embarrassed child curled up on the floor near the heater blower that quickly spread the foul odor.
She also recalled a sad little girl. "Something is going on in my house. There is something happening," the pupil told her bus driver.
Later -- a week before Christmas --the girl told Mangino, "I'm so relieved; my dad lost his job." The girl had thought something worse had happened to her family.
Mangino also remembers a girl who was playing with a small plastic toy when it went up her nose. She ended up in the emergency room to have it dislodged.
Mangino said she was fortunate that there weren't more emergencies. There were some days, especially in the spring, when she had to remind the children the rules of the bus.
"I've had to stop the bus many times," she said. "When they hear the air brakes, they know, and all jump back into their seats.
"They test you every day," Mangino said.
Driver's substitute
Mangino said drivers are taught to pick out one child to put in charge if something happens to the driver.
"The one who is the most mischievous is the one to take charge. It's the stinker you can trust," she said.
He's the one who will put out the flares if the bus breaks down.
"The kids are really responsible when there's an emergency," she said.
Mangino said she never had to turn in a motorist for not obeying the yellow and red warning lights on her bus.
From her perch in the driver's seat, however, she has observed "distracted" motorists who use cell phones while driving.
She's also seen a change in children over the years: They are brighter than their parents. Mangino knows this because she's seen generations riding the bus -- fathers and mothers, and then their sons and daughters.
They're also more informal.
School board member Andy Bednar recalled referring to her as "Mrs. Mangino" and his daughter called her "Sue" when she was riding that bus.
"I will miss the kids," she said. "But I'll see them out and about."
yovich@vindy.com