[T]he Green Mountain Transit driver who kicked more than a dozen students off a Burlington bus has been fired.
The company could not be contacted Tuesday to explain the decision, however it was a matter of heated debate at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
A fellow driver and fellow union member, Rob Slingerland, blamed current councilors for “politicizing” the situation and triggering the decision.
Slingerland said the driver in question had been working for Green Mountain Transit for 10 years and should not have lost his job.
“His situation went political and we all know why it went political,” said Slingerland, who is part of the drivers union. “With him being a scapegoat of a system that has failed us for years.”
He said rules for conduct during special student routes change too frequently, and drivers are left with “no clue” what to do in a situation where children become unruly.
Rebecca Mack, a parent of two children on the bus, wrote a Facebook post after the incident on May 23 detailing the situation as described by the children. She said students who had been kicked off accused the driver of targeting students of color. The allegation prompted an internal investigation by GMT, which found that the incident was “not racially biased.”
The GMT footage shows the driver forced students in the back to leave, including white students, while quieter children towards the front were allowed to remain. Students of color were among those who remained on the bus. The approximately 17 students forced to disembark ranged in age from 5 to 13.
Transit officials said the driver still violated company protocol when he ejected Edmunds Middle School and Edmunds Elementary School students.
GMT spokesperson Jamie Smith told VTDigger a week after the incident that the now-terminated driver has no prior incidents, but violated “several” protocols during the confrontation with students. At the time, GMT declined to specify which rules were broken. Smith did not return several calls and an email seeking comment on Thursday.
Councilor Jack Hanson, P-East District, said on Tuesday he went to GMT headquarters on Industrial Avenue after the incident to speak with staff about what happened, and watch the video. He said management told him the decision to fire the driver was made based on both the incident and the driver’s past with the organization.
“I don’t have any reason to believe that the process is corrupted,” Hanson said. “I would like to hear more from the union if they feel the process is corrupted in this case, that would be a concern.”
Hanson said it’s important for city councilors to promptly respond to issues raised by constituents.
“There was a concern in the community about this incident,” he said. “People were bringing up concerns about a 5-year-old child being removed from a bus, it was a pretty serious incident.”
Footage from three different camera angles of the incident, reviewed by VTDigger, shows students in the back of the bus singing while clapping and banging on the sides, shortly after it departed. The driver tells them to stop banging on the windows, and the noise only briefly subsides.
A few minutes later, the driver can be seen stopping the bus and yelling in the aisle at the students to get off and “everybody in the back, get off or I call the police.” Several students who remained on the bus left after the driver, who has not been identified, began to call GMT dispatch.
Multiple students who left began yelling at the driver and chasing the bus in the street while pounding on the sides.
The driver had previously been placed on administrative leave. The Burlington School District agreed the incident was not racially biased after reviewing the footage.
The school district contracts with GMT for special before and after school routes which service most city neighborhoods. The bus is available for free to all students who live approximately a mile or more from their school.
The Burlington School District currently has a list of expectations for students on the bus, which include listening to and obeying the driver’s instructions at all times, not throwing objects and using a quiet voice.
The school district and GMT are considering on-site training for students. The transit organization currently requires de-escalation training for drivers with Vermont State Police, as well as diversity training.
Former North District City Councilor Dave Harnett blamed the council for pressuring GMT into firing the driver during public comment period on Monday night.
“These particular councilors saw an opportunity to advance their political careers without thinking about the impact on the bus driver’s life,” Hartnett said in an interview on Tuesday.
Harnett said he disagrees with the decision to remove children from the bus, but believes there was a rush to judgement when the school district and GMT ultimately found the incident “not racially biased.”
Councilor Ali Dieng, D/P–Ward 7, said in an interview he doesn’t feel he and fellow councilors “overstepped.”
Dieng said he first heard of the incident after a constituent tagged him in Mack’s Facebook post. Later that evening, he said, he drafted a letter asking GMT to come to the next City Council meeting. It was sent shortly after by Kurt Wright, the council president.
Dieng said the intent was to gain information and hear the other side of the story.
“It sounded like they wanted to put that decision on the council, because we put good political pressure on the issue,” he said in reaction to the comments made by Slingerland and Hartnett on Monday.
