BY LINDSAY FIORI
Journal Times | Posted: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 12:00 am
RACINE - A school bus driver was fired Monday after he took a disabled boy to his home instead of school.
The driver reported the boy fell asleep on the bus but the child's mother worries something more may have happened.
The 9-year-old developmentally disabled boy was picked up by a school bus from his home in the 500 block of Hubbard Street, said Racine Police Sgt. Bernie Kupper.
The boy's mother, Lourdes Rios, 35 of Racine, said the bus picked her son up at 7:25 a.m. for his first day of summer school at Goodland Elementary School, 4800 Graceland Blvd.
Rios asked the male driver who would drop the boy off and when. The driver said he would bring her son home and inquired what time school ended for the day. Rios told him school finished at 10:20 a.m. and watched the bus full of children drive off.
When Rios' son had not returned by 11 a.m., she became worried and called the school. School officials told her the boy never arrived.
"A teacher or assistant (was) supposed to phone home if the child was absent," said Goodland Principal Billie Novick.
Novick could not confirm that a phone call had been made and Rios said she never received one. When her son was finally dropped off by the bus at 11:25 a.m., he had an interesting story to tell.
"He said, 'I didn't go to school today. I went to that man's house,' " Rios said. "It's scary. I never thought this would happen to my son. You put your trust in people."
Rios said the bus driver dropped other children off at school but took her son to his home where he may have sat on the bus for several hours.
At 11:36 p.m. Racine police officers responded to a complaint from Rios.
"The kid was unable to articulate that anything unusual occurred at the home," Kupper said. "The kid is safe, not complaining and there are no obvious signs of injury."
Through tears, Rios said she took her son to the hospital for an exam to make sure nothing inappropriate happened at the bus driver's home. She said Tuesday that doctors did not find anything when examining her son.
Rios kept her son home from school Tuesday and said she plans to keep him home for the rest of the week. When he returns to school, he will not ride the bus there.
Novick said she contacted Durham School Service, which provides bus transportation for Racine Unified schools.
"I checked to see who the bus driver was," Novick said. "He was fired. His story was the child fell asleep on the bus. But they are supposed to do a bus check where they walk through to make sure there are no children on it."
Pat Starken, Racine Unified transportation specialist, said leaving a child on a bus results in automatic firing.
"He was a good driver," Starken said. "It's a shame he made a mistake."
Starken declined to provide the driver's name, but said he had no history of problems on the job.
Tiffini Bloniarz, spokeswoman for Durham School Services, said even though the driver had been employed for two years without incident, the company has a zero tolerance policy.
Novick said the incident appears to be a case of extreme negligence, not malice.
"It's totally inappropriate. The bus driver should never have had the child on the bus or have taken him in his house if he did," Novick said. "He should have reported it to someone right away."
Officers will forward a report to the investigations department, where a supervisor will evaluate the case and determine a proper follow up, Kupper said.
Bloniarz said Durham is cooperating with police and conducting their own investigation by talking to the driver and working with the school district.