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Bad Drivers By The School Busload
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 20, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 20, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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The Daily News' series, School Bus Disgrace, is nothing short of amazing. There's just tale after tale of questionable behavior by school bus drivers - and that doesn't even include the drivers who have been convicted to convicted of attempted murder and other crimes.
And then there's a story about a driver and a class field trip. The driver Ronald Eldridge felt kids were making fun of him, and he ended up arguing with the teacher, claiming that he knew the students were talking about him because of microphones and cameras planted on the bus:
When teacher Alecia Miller used her cell phone to call the school to request another driver for the trip home, Eldridge told her to put away the phone.
"He said he was in control of everything on the bus and said that if he wanted to, he could ram the bus into a wall and kill everybody," Miller was quoted as saying in an internal department of education report on the June 7 incident.
As Miller was calling the police, some ninth-graders in the back of the bus scribbled, "CALL 911 - driver is CRAZY" on notepads and held the signs to the windows for passersby to see.
We really don't miss riding the school bus. Eldridge's case was eventually dismissed, but, come on, telling a teacher you can crash the bus to kill everyone isn't great.
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says he'll look into hiring more investigators to check the backgrounds of drivers. And the Daily News' previous story listing some transgressions was unfortunately hilarious.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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