He Drinks and He Cusses, Throws Kids Off the Buses

By Prescott Carlson in News on May 14, 2009 9:48PM

A suburban school bus driver from the First Student bus service has found himself out of a job after he kicked a 13-year-old girl off his bus miles from school because she didn't have express permission to be on it. The student, Claribeth De La Cruz, had stayed overnight at a family friend's house as her parents attended to an emergency involving her older brother, who suffers from a serious illness. Her mother thought she had taken care of things by leaving a message for Claribeth's teacher, as well as sending a note along with her daughter explaining the situation and giving the girl permission for the change. But unfortunately that wasn't enough.

As the jerks young teens can be, several kids began loudly questioning why Claribeth was on the bus, and once the bus driver caught wind of the stowaway he pulled over and grilled the girl as to what she was doing there. She made her case, and gave him the note from her mom, but the bus driver told Claribeth if she didn't have permission from the school, she couldn't be on the bus and he made her get off. That's right, the driver thought that instead of bringing her to school, it would be better to leave a young girl at the side of the road. Needless to say, this is against company policy:

According to [Claribeth's mother] Beth, First Student told the family that protocol for even the worst instance of misbehavior on one of their buses wasn't to kick the student off, but to park the vehicle and call the police. First Student told her the driver had never been cited for behavior issues but would be "written up" because of this mistake, she said.

To make matters worse, Claribeth had no idea where she was when she got off the bus. Fortunately her cell phone that had previously not been working turned on, and she was able to call for a ride and made it to school safely. The district's director of support services, Karla Zozulia, agreed with the driver's dismissal telling the Naperville Sun, "It is unacceptable that the driver did not err on the side of caution and deliver the student safely to school." As parents ourselves, we wholeheartedly agree. [Trib, Naperville Sun]