School Bus Driver Charged With DUI
Norwich man stopped for driving erratically; Ledyard students OK
By KATRINA T. GATHERS
Day Staff Writer, Ledyard/Preston
Published on 9/1/2004
Ledyard A town school bus driver was arrested here Tuesday morning, the first day of school, for allegedly driving drunk with a busload of elementary school students.
George Gillis, 65, of 136 Hunters Road, Lot 145, in Norwich, was charged with driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, first-degree reckless endangerment and 23 counts of risk of injury to a minor, one count for each of the children on the bus at the time of his arrest, according to state police at Troop E in Montville.
The bus belongs to the New Jersey-based Student Transportation of America, which has the transportation contract for Ledyard schools. It was carrying children to Ledyard Center School, which has pupils in kindergarten through grade 6.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the state police barracks in Montville, state police spokesman Sgt. J. Paul Vance gave the following report:
At 9:12 a.m., an off-duty state trooper working at a construction site on Route 2 received a complaint from a passing motorist that a school bus traveling on Route 2 near Mathewson Mill Road was driving erratically.
After a brief search, the trooper found the bus on Route 117 near Ledyard Center. The driver was heading to drop 23 students off at Ledyard Center School, which begins its school day at 8:40 a.m.
After stopping the bus, the trooper waited for a supervisor from the bus company to arrive at the scene. Gillis failed a field sobriety test, so the supervisor drove the students to school.
Superintendent of Schools Michael Graner, who participated in the press conference, said the building principal contacted the parents of each of the 23 children on the bus. Gillis had dropped off 30 students at the high school before picking up the elementary students, he said.
Graner said the parents of the high school students were also contacted and letters were sent home with every student.
Under no circumstances will he be driving again in Ledyard, said the superintendent.
Gillis is not a town employee; he was hired through the bus company. Vance and Graner said bus drivers must go through extensive background checks before they are permitted to transport school students.
The hiring procedure includes an FBI background check, a pre-employment drug and alcohol screening, and a driving-records check. A check of public records Tuesday revealed no previous arrests for Gillis.
Dwayne Dunn, whose second-grade daughter rides the bus, said Tuesday evening that the child said she was looking out the window during her ride and noticed that the bus kept zig-zagging on the road.
He would start driving, miss a turn and back up in the middle of the road to make the turn, said the 7-year-old. He got me scared. I thought he was going to kidnap us.
He was crossing the yellow line. He wasn't driving right, she said.
Graner said Gillis completed a 10-mile bus run to drop off students at Ledyard High School. He was halfway through the second run, about five miles, when the trooper stopped him, said the superintendent.
He was employed by the bus company for one day, and the incident occurred in his first hour of employment, said Graner. I'm extremely upset and devastated that this happened to any children.
Graner said later that several high school students noticed unusual behavior by the driver. Graner estimated that the elementary students waited on the bus roughly 20 minutes before the new driver took them to school.
Messages left Tuesday at the bus company's regional office and corporate headquarters were not immediately returned. According to the company's Web site, STA is the country's second-largest privately owned school transportation and management services company.
In early August, STA acquired Krise Bus Service of Pennsylvania, increasing the firm's operation to 11 states with nearly 3,000 vehicles transporting more than 200,000 students daily.
Ledyard is in its third year of a four-year contract with the firm. Until Tuesday, Graner said, the company had an unblemished record with the town. The superintendent said he could not comment on what administrative action, if any, would be taken against Gillis.
The company is in as much shock as we are, said Graner. I can assure you that they will take appropriate action.
On the town side, Graner said the police and school district immediately started several procedures to help safeguard students. Beginning today, volunteer bus monitors parents and other residents will begin riding buses to help out and to report any unsafe practices to the superintendent. Mayor Susan Mendenhall will ride this morning on Bus No. 2, the one driven Tuesday by Gillis.
A citizens' watch program will allow volunteer observers to report issues to the superintendent. In addition, STA will provide badges to all bus drivers and town police will train bus company supervisors to help them identify symptoms of drug and alcohol use.
Sgt. Todd Lynch, the town's resident trooper, and other police personnel will meet this morning with bus company employees, said Graner. Vance urged parents to talk with their children about their daily bus rides and if there are concerns to report them immediately.
Also, the school system will host a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the high school auditorium to address parents' and residents' concerns.
Nancy Woodruff, a PTO co-president at Ledyard Center School, said her initial reaction was concern, but she was pleased with the immediate steps that the police and school district took to stop the bus and later inform parents.
When her children got on their bus Tuesday morning, the driver greeted them by name, she said. Having a volunteer riding on the buses could help students, and their parents, feel safer, said Woodruff.
This incident is definitely going to make me even more watchful. I'm not so panicked that I will drive my kids to school, but there is sort of a balance, she said. I was watching them this morning even before I knew what happened.
Woodruff added that the onus is on the bus company, because ultimately they are responsible for who they hire.
In October 2002, a STA employee in Moon, Pa., was arrested on drunken driving charges after parents reported smelling alcohol on the driver's breath. At the time, a company vice president said the firm had a zero tolerance drug policy.
In April 2001, an STA employee in Lakewood, N.J., ran over and killed a 7-year-old boy. Investigators later determined that there was no evidence that the driver committed a crime.
Gillis was being held Tuesday on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear today in New London Superior Court. Vance, the state police spokesman, said it would be up to the prosecutor whether additional risk of injury charges would be added because of the 30 high school students on the earlier bus driven by Gillis.
About the only eventful thing that happened day was I get to leave school nearly four hours early(and I can do that until the seventh of this month 
)
