The Green Mountain Transit driver who was fired in May after kicking more than a dozen students off an after-school bus in violation of protocol has been rehired by the company.
The driver, who has not been identified by GMT, was let go in June — but as of August 12, he was officially back on staff. GMT spokeswoman Jamie Smith said the driver was reinstated after the grievance process that follows a termination, as per the company’s union contract. The company said it was not identifying the driver because the matter involved a personnel issue.
“If they feel like something happened that shouldn’t have, they are able to grieve a decision,” Smith said Monday. “So that’s what happened.”
The incident occurred on May 23, when the driver forced approximately 17 students ages 5-13 off a bus for singing, clapping, and banging the sides of the bus. One of the students’ mothers posted about the incident on Facebook, calling it racially biased, since most of the students removed from the bus were students of color — sparking wide community outrage.
Video footage from the incident reviewed by VTDigger showed that several of the students kicked off the bus were white, and many of the students who remained were people of color. Both GMT and the Burlington School District ultimately agreed that the incident was not racially biased.
GMT did note, however, that it was against their policy for students to be kicked off a bus before their stop, especially with no supervision. At the time of his termination, the company said removing the students in that manner was in violation of “several” company protocols.
Interim General Manager Jon Moore said the driver is not currently scheduled for any Edmunds routes, though he noted that it is still possible that he will drive those routes in the future. (The driver was picking up an unassigned “open route” shift at the time of the incident, though he had driven the Edmunds routes many times before).
Smith noted that the driver has worked with GMT for many years, and never had any other issues.
In July, GMT General Manager Mike Sousa was placed on administrative leave for an undisclosed reason. Thomas Chittenden, chair of GMT’s board, said it was not in connection with the Edmunds incident.
Moore said Green Mountain Transit has now clarified their protocols, both internally and with the school district. He said it has been made clear that drivers can never kick anyone off a bus without first pulling over to a safe location and contacting their superior. He said when children are involved, drivers will now have a network of school principals and GMT officials that can be contacted to help find a school official that can get any children home safely.
“We’re proactively working with the school district,” Moore said. “We’re actually giving a presentation tomorrow at Edmunds middle and elementary, making sure we’re getting them home quickly and safely, and to make sure that incidents like this one don’t happen again.”
