Riding the bus in the late 70's Early 80's was different

I rode a bus that served two Catholic grade schools, the Catholic HS, and a couple Lutheran grade schools. It was a contract with the city, so we road regular city busses, not school busses.

The biggest issues we had were nerdier kids getting picked on and middle school kids saying and doing stupid shit because they were starting to notice that some of the girls were pretty cute.

Mornings were more subdued because we were getting picked up around 6:45 AM to 7 AM. (School started at 7:45 AM) I played sports, so I only rode the bus home on game days or in between sports. I did get to witness this epic exchange. There was a very nerdy 7th grader. He got picked on a lot and tried to give it back but that just made it worse. His last name was "Keener" and everyone called him "Peener" referring to his allegedly small equipment. Every once in a while, our school would put a teacher on the bus to monitor behavior. (Non-union teachers) The main bully was named Chizek. He started in on Peener and our female gym teacher, who was also a coach had had enough. She went off on the kid telling him that Chizek sounded like "Cheese Dick" and how does that feel. She must have called him Cheese Dick 5 times.

I realize that may not be appropriate and she'd get fired today. Regardless, she instantly earned the respect of every kid on the bus and throughout the school. Peener still gets called Peener to this day, but he owned the name and he didn't get bullied much after that. Chizek's parent's found out he got punished. He was still a jerk. Probably still is. He will forever be "Cheese Dick" to most of his contemporaries. The teacher was hired away and made a principal in the local public system. Things seemed to work out.