Students who display delinquent behaviour on school buses will receive severe punishments, with parents held accountable if damages occur, Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades said after a meeting with Education Minister Athena Michaelidou on Wednesday.

“Any incident of delinquency on buses can develop into a loss of control of the bus and, by extension, lead to very tragic results,” he said.

He stressed that it was “unacceptable” that students are at risk and emphasised that parents would be obliged to pay for any damage, which Vafeades said could “rise to very high levels”.

Vafeades announced a series of prevention and monitoring measures, including enhanced controls and an increased presence of supervisors on specific troublesome routes.

Education Minister Athena Michaelidou expressed her support for the measures announced by the transport minister.

“We will not allow and will have no tolerance for issues of violence and delinquency on buses on student routes,” she said.

She added that serious and dangerous behaviours haven been recorded in the past, “even if they are isolated”.

Michaelidou said that several education and information measures would be introduced, addressing both parents and children, emphasising the importance of preventive measures to combat the recent incidents.

President of the confederation of parents’ associations of public secondary schools, Loizos Constantinou, said he supported the need for punitive measures.

He said that it was legitimate to call on parents to cover the damage caused by their children, stressing that the responsibility concerned both parents and students.

“Safety for us is above all else and we will not tolerate anyone endangering the safety of anyone on the buses,” he said.

The meeting was held after several incidents of violence and damage of public property were observed on specific student routes, causing disruption of services, Vafeades said.

It was attended by representatives of the Pancyprian confederation of parents’ associations of public secondary schools and representatives of the police.