April 30, 2008
School bus driver, aide accused of threatening autistic students
Morton School District seeking another transportation company
The Morton School District said it is looking for a new company to transport its disabled students after a bus driver and an aide allegedly subjected autistic students to expletives and threats.
Worse, a school district spokesman said, the bus company put the two workers in another district after they served a six-week suspension.
"That's the part that rises to a level of 'What the hell are you doing?' " school district spokesman Dan Proft said. "That's a management decision. That's not just two bad actors."
The comments were tape-recorded after Berwyn parents suspected that their disabled children were being tormented on the bus operated by two employees of First Student Inc. of Cincinnati. They put a digital recorder in a child's backpack in January.
"The way they were treated is beyond outrageous," Proft said. "Part of the outrage is that these are children who cannot functionally verbally communicate."
The parents notified the school district of the recording that month, Proft said. The district contacted First Student, which suspended the driver and aide for six weeks.
Afterward, the two were assigned to a new route, said Kimberly Mulcahy, a spokeswoman for First Student. She would not name the new district. Then, last week, the two were fired after the company acquired a copy of the recording, she said.
Though she said the company regrets that the driver and aide were allowed back to work after the suspension, she blamed the school district and parents for not providing the company with the recording. The district said it never had a copy of the recording. The parents could not be reached Wednesday.
"Based on the lack of evidence from our initial investigation, unfortunately, these people were allowed to return to work," Mulcahy said.
The Morton district has a $1.5 million contract with First Student to transport eight disabled students to a special-needs school in Chicago, Proft said. First Student, the nation's largest school bus company after acquiring Naperville-based Laidlaw last year, also transports students from extracurricular activities.
He did not know how long the district has contracted with First Student, but said it was looking for other companies to provide service.
Berwyn Police Chief William Kushner said police will meet Tuesday with the Cook County state's attorney's office, the parents of the special-needs students and bus company representatives to discuss whether the driver and aide will be criminally charged.
At issue, he said, is whether the audio recording violates the state's eavesdropping law, which mandates that a conversation be recorded with the knowledge of all parties. The children probably could not testify, he said.
"This is a conundrum for everybody," Kushner said. "If we don't have testimony, we're lost."
He said he wants the case to go before a judge.
"We've got special-needs kids involved who are victims," he said. "They deserve their day in court."
