New York City's School Buses are Hell on Wheels
- By Susan Edelman - July 22, 2017 - New York Post
Nearly 1,000 city school-bus drivers and escorts were suspended or fired for misbehavior in 2015 — an alarming number that has skyrocketed in recent years, records show.
One driver was seen dropping his pants outside a school, twice in one day. Another urinated in a bottle on a bus with a child aboard because he had a “bladder and bowel condition.”
One carried of beer; another reeked of pot. One denied dozing at the wheel but was caught on video by frightened attendants.
The New York City Department of Education listed 760 disciplined drivers and 185 errant escorts. The vast majority were removed without pay for a few days to six months — but then allowed to return.
The DOE said 186 cases involved harm or danger to kids, including reckless driving, leaving children alone or dropping them off unattended or with strangers. In one case, a child got off a bus and went missing all night. He was found the next morning at Kings County Hospital.
Only 23 drivers and seven matrons were fired. Others were arrested for DWI or other crimes.
Among the escorts, one grabbed a child’s head and “began to shake the child back and forth.” One didn’t stop a student forcing another into oral sex. One kicked a special-ed student and called the child a “mother-fucker.”
The city contracts with bus companies to transport 150,000 children to and from public and private schools, spending
$1.1 billion a year. The companies hire some 12,000 drivers, escorts and mechanics, but the DOE’s Office of Pupil Transportation probes complaints and imposes penalties.
The DOE took 20 months to release the 2015 disciplinary records, and only after The Post filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Law.
Scores of horror stories in the records include:
Getting lost: One driver rode around for four hours without notifying anyone. The kids on the bus were found “sweating, dehydrated and begging for water.” He was suspended nine days.
Injuries: A driver left a child at the bus stop bleeding from the head. His shocked parent took him to the hospital for stitches. The driver was fired.
Wild rides: A scared student called his parents to report the bus “driving crazy.” A sharp turn threw kids out of their seats, including one who tumbled out a back door. Kids suffered back pain and scrapes. The driver was suspended for 10 days.
Warnings ignored: When kids cried out that a driver was speeding, “he laughs.” The same driver smoked cigarettes and stopped at McDonald’s, with the engine running. Suspension: 90 days.
Carelessness: An escort did not secure a disabled child who “fell on his head” while being taken off the bus. The driver left a message with his company and took off. Both were suspended for 60 days.
Rudeness: A driver “humiliated” the mother of a disabled child who urinated on the bus, telling her the fluid could have started an electrical fire and advising that her 14-year-old son wear diapers. Suspension: 5 days.
The 945 drivers and escorts suspended or fired in just 12 months, between Dec. 1, 2014 and Dec. 2, 2015, dwarfs the 1,300 disciplined over five years, between 2008 and 2012.
Sara Catalinotto, a Manhattan mom who founded Parents to Improve School Transportation (PIST), isn’t shocked.
She blamed a 2013 decision by the Bloomberg administration to eliminate job protections for bus drivers, a move that sparked a month long strike. The change curbed contract costs but led to an influx of lower-paid, less-qualified workers. “What they are doing to save money ends up hurting our kids,” Catalinotto said. “You get what you pay for.”
https://nypost.com/2017/07/22/new-york-citys-school-buses-are-hell-on-wheels/
