A physical altercation on the bus, what should the school driver do?

Get off the freeway, find a place to pull over. Separate the kids. If they refuse to be separated and keep going after each other, call the principal, or who ever your boss is, to ask what you should do.

^ Separate the kids. If they refuse to be separated and keep going after each other,...]
Explain, how would the driver do that and avoid being sued somehow?

I think the bus driver is between a rock and a hard place. If they stop and get involved then yes, they could be at risk of legal action against them. If they don’t stop, they could be at risk of action because they didn’t intervene. Not to mention their own safety could be compromised. Their intervention would have to be guided by the age of the people involved. The first thing would be to stop the bus where it’s safe and have some mechanism in place for the driver to call for assistance, for instance, radio the bus depot to alert them of the problem. Beyond that, I think every situation would be different but I think they should advise other children to stay away from the fight and if appropriate to get off the bus this document from Australia advises staying within the cab area of the bus. This is not directed at school violence on buses but I don’t know that older kids are less threatening than anyone else. This article that is discussing school violence on buses, also recommends the driver stays in their cab.

There are certain things you can do and not be sued. Wrapping your arms around a kid is one of them. Of course, whether or not that works depends on the age of the kid.

@Dutchess_III There are certain things you can do and not be sued. Wrapping your arms around a kid is one of them. Of course, whether or not that works depends on the age of the kid.
OK, you wrap the kid up to stop him/her from swinging on the passive or smaller kid, then what? If the kid is doing all they can to get free to continue pummeling the other child and is injured by their efforts to get free, the parent are going to blame someone, more than likely, and go after the drivers job and the school district’s money. If it is a male driver having to wrap up a ”mean girl” bashing another girl, the wicket gets even stickier.

I’‘m just telling you what we were taught in college.

^ Sadly often college has no sway in the real world, in so many things.

Well, I never had reason to used the hold, but I’m sure many teachers have. I’ve never seen it reported in the news.

Maybe because the kids oin whom it was used on did not resist at all cost causing them to be injured, I am sure if that had happened, depending on which wire service got hold of it, it would have been on Larry King Live or CNN. Lawyers would be salavating at the mouth also.