Posted on 01/28/2007 7:24:06 PM PST by Calpernia
Not again: FirstStudent fails to submit Columbus OH school bus drivers for background checks since 2004; same company that employed man indicted in terror charges as school bus driver
Reports emerged this week that 56,000 Columbus OH school students had their classes canceled because First Student, the contractor responsible for their school buses, had failed to submit their drivers for background checks since 2004.
According to an Associated Press article released on Friday:
Columbus schools canceled classes for their 56,000 students Thursday after a contractor responsible for some school bus routes discovered it had not done complete criminal background checks on drivers.
First Student Inc. had not submitted any of its bus drivers' information to the state for checks since August 2004, said Jennifer Brindisi, spokeswoman for Attorney General Marc Dann.
This is especially concerning considering that this is not the first time that First Student has had problems with its background checks. In fact, one of First Student's bus drivers has been indicted on terrorism-related charges, and was a roommate of a man convicted of luxury hotel bombing and a suspect in the USS Cole attack.
This steller First Student driver was Mohamed Kamal Elzahabi. In 2004, First Student driver Mohamed Kamal Elzahabi was indicted in Minneapolis. The charges: two counts of lying to agents with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in connection with an international terrorism investigation.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, al Zahabi allegedly attended a jihad military training camp and fought in Afghanistan in 1988 and 1989. Later, the indictment alleges he acted as a sniper in combat and also served as an instructor in small arms and sniper skills for other jihadists attending the Khalden training camp in Afghanistan.
Records show he passed the school bus driver portion of his CDL on Oct. 17, 2001, a date Pearson said was around the time First Student hired him and he began driving routes.
On September 11, 2001, Elzahabi applied with First Student of Minneapolis, to become a school bus driver. Elzahabi spent four months as a First Student school bus driver in late 2001, transporting students for the Minneapolis Public Schools. The company fired him in January of 2002 after he failed to report to work, said Jeff Pearson, region vice president with First Student, Inc. First Student is based in Cincinnati, OH, and employs 19,000 drivers on 15,000 school buses nationwide.
Elzahabi also held Commercial Driver's Licenses in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Minnesota, and also had a HAZMAT certification.
While in Massachusetts, Elzahabi's roommate in Everett was none other than Raid Hijazi, who has been convicted of blowing up a luxury hotel in Jordan. Hijazi is also a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole.
According to an article in School Bus Transportation News at http://www.stnonline.com/stn/security/stn_articles/alqaeda1.htm:
After fighting in Chechnya from late 1999 through 2000, the FBI said, Elzahabi re-entered the United Stats and settled in the Minneapolis area. Pearson said Elzahabi applied with First Student on Sept. 11, 2001, the same day terrorists flew airplanes into the WorldTradeCenter and the Pentagon. At the time, Elzahabi held a valid Massachusetts driver's license and school bus CDL, including hazmat clearance.
It is unclear at this point as to whether or not Elzahabi ever used his school bus CDL in Massachusetts or not.
In that same article, School Bus Transportation News reported on comments about Elzahabi from Jeff Pearson, region vice president with First Student, Inc. said:
First Student, a Cincinnati-based company, employs 19,000 drivers on 15,000 school buses nationwide. The fact that at least one of those drivers may have had connections to Al Qaeda is disturbing to Pearson, but also a sign of how over-stretched background investigators are when attempting to verify a prospective employee's identity and past.
"I don't think we can ever be satisfied with the way background checks are done," Pearson said. "It seems almost impossible to get all the information you need on individuals, especially if they are trying to hide something.
One thing is certain. If you don't do the background check, you get even less information, and it becomes even easier for people to hide information.
This person, "Russell Christie III, age 48, a school bus driver residing in New Jersey", was also a FirstStudent bus driver.
ping
Does this company hire the drivers for the 2 muslims who got on a school bus to go for a ride?
In the south, a couple years ago, and they got off, as poor dumb students.
This is so unreal, that it is hard to believe, but I do not doubt it, next, I want to see how many are illegal drivers and using a stolen identify.
I have noticed that there are more school bus accidents the last few months, than I had heard of before.
http://news.google.com/news?q=school%20bus%20accident&client=netscape-pp&rls=com.netscape:en-US&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn
http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=ush2-mail&ei=UTF-8&p=school%20bus%20accident&fr2=tab-web
A couple weeks ago, there was a bus that went wild and ran over a bunch of students in the school yard, the driver said he could not gain control........some were badly hurt.
Ping.
There was a bus accident just a couple of weeks ago, here in Kentucky. The driver was high on coke while driving. I think there are still two kids in the hospital over that one.
I have never liked putting my kids on a school bus, but at least, in this small town, I think they are still hired by the school district.
I have had an alert set at Google for the school bus accidents and I am seeing an increase.
If my memory is right, one of the girls, who was hit by the runaway bus, was to have her life support stopped a few days ago.
The only reason that more were not hurt, is that it climbed a fence.
It makes me cuss, to think of your 2 neighbor kids, being hurt, in the one place they should be safe.
If you choose to send your kids to the failed public schools, then statistically speaking, school buses are the safest mode of transport: Every year in this country about 700 children are killed being driven to school in their parents' vehicle, while there are about 10 fatalities a year in school buses.
Can't disagree with you, on the schools, and am glad that I can say that my great-grandchildren are being home schooled.
But , I will pass on the school bus.
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