Bus driver suspended after child climbs out back window

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 2/8/8 | Don Jacobs

[SmithL]

A Knox County school bus driver was suspended pending a probe into how a 9-year-old boy this morning escaped from a bus by climbing out a window.

Police were alerted at 8:48 a.m. that a child had climbed out a bus window and fled while the vehicle was stopped on Lay Avenue in East Knoxville to pick up other students. Bus 103 has a capacity of 20 passengers and serves Ridgedale School, said Knox County Schools spokesman Russ Oaks.

Ridgedale School is located along Ridgedale Road just off Oak Ridge Highway. The school serves grades pre K-12 as an alternative school for suspended students and those with special needs, Oaks said.

After getting out of the bus, the boy ran to his home about four blocks away, Oaks said.

"He went directly home and is with his mother," Oaks said this morning. "She was going to take the child to school."

Oaks said the bus driver is required to have an aide on the bus to handle the children and a radio to communicate with the bus owner and school officials.

"The driver did not stop and pick up an aid," he said. "We’re also looking into why they didn’t have communications on board.

"Both those things are being investigated. And during the investigation, the driver is off the approved driver list."

Oaks said the school system and the Knoxville Police Department are conducting the probe.

The suspended driver has been on the Ridgedale School route for two weeks.

[geezerwheezer]

Looks as though the kid’s parents need to start acting like real parents and take care of the kid themselves. As usual, the school administrators fire the bus driver, instead of themselves for allowing the little jerk kid to even go to a “special needs” school. Put the kid in a home that teaches him responsibility instead of relying on a public school to do it.