Driver fired for leaving child on school bus

By MICHAEL WANBAUGH, Tribune Staff Writer

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South Bend school bus

(WSBT file photo)

By Jim Pinkerton

Story Created: Sep 17, 2008 at 2:57 PM EST

Story Updated: Sep 17, 2008 at 3:27 PM EST

SOUTH BEND — Interim schools Superintendent James Kapsa said the driver that left a 5-year-old on her bus earlier this month has been fired.

"There were about three guidelines that simply were not followed," Kapsa said. "Those are things (a bus driver) just has to do."

The incident happened the morning of Sept. 4 when a Kennedy Primary Academy kindergarten student fell asleep on the bus.

The boy did not wake up when students were dropped off at the school. According to South Bend Community School Corp. officials and the boy’s mother, he remained on the vehicle as the driver returned to the main bus lot near the airport.

Shortly after the bus was parked and the driver left, the boy woke up. He was found by an unidentified adult in the lot who reunited him with his bus driver, who then took him back to school.

The incident went unreported until that afternoon when the boy told another bus driver, and then his mother, what had happened.

Kapsa and transportation director Judith Dahlstrom met with the boy’s mother and later with the bus driver, who was suspended while the incident was investigated.

According to Dahlstrom, drivers are required to check on and under each seat before exiting their bus.

South Bend buses also are equipped with the Child Check-Mate system, which requires deactivation from the back of the bus. If a driver does not deactivate the system after the ignition is turned off, the bus’s lights will flash and its horn will sound. The purpose is to make drivers walk to the back of the bus before they leave.

The driver also failed to report the incident to transportation officials once she became aware of what happened.

It is the second time in the past three years a corporation bus driver has been fired for leaving a 5-year-old on a bus.

Neither child was injured.

Kapsa said the corporation goes to great lengths to keep these kind of things from happening.

It comes down to drivers following through on their procedures, he said.

"When you bus 17,000 kids, what are the odds that something like this happens?" Kapsa said. "We’ve had a good track record."

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