Retired CVUSD official: Bus employees should be fired

The former director of transportation for Coachella Valley Unified said Wednesday that district employees who left a young boy locked on a school bus earlier this month should have been fired immediately.

Linda Aguirre, 57, of Indio, said a similar incident occurred several years ago, when another boy was forgotten on a different east valley school bus. That driver should have been fired, too, Aguirre said, but the driver was instead given an "appalling" three-day suspension.

"There are certain things that require immediate termination. And one of them is leaving a student behind in a bus, unattended," Aguirre told The Desert Sun in an exclusive interview.

Aguirre worked for Coachella Valley Unified for 26 years — including five years as transportation director — before retiring in 2012. During her time in the district, she climbed the ranks from bus driver to trainer to supervisor to assistant director and finally to department head.

On Wednesday, Aguirre spoke up about the district's busing system because Coachella Valley Unified would not. Since the boy was found on the locked bus on Sept. 8, the district has refused to discuss its busing policy and safety procedures — even generally.

This information is "basic," and the public deserves to know how the busing system works, Aguirre said.

The school district has security systems and policies in place that should have prevented the child from being left on the bus. All buses have a built-in child check safety system that requires bus drivers to check the bus at the end of their route, and logs a computer record if they don't. The special education buses also have security cameras, so the district should know exactly what went wrong, she said.

"It's appalling to think that, with all the procedures in place, this still happens," Aguirre said. "It takes less than a minute to walk to the back of the bus and make sure. As the director, your biggest fear … was that a child will die under your watch. You can fix a bus. You can fix a dent. But a life? Oh no."

On Sept. 8, an 11-year-old special needs student was found on a locked bus — Bus No. 111 — at the Coachella Valley Unified school bus at the bus depot in Thermal. Somehow, the boy had not been dropped off at Valle Del Sol Elementary in Coachella earlier that morning. The district has said the boy was found about 9 a.m., after being stuck on the bus for about 30 minutes. Two unidentified district employees have been put on leave pending a district investigation.

Although the boy on the bus was unhurt, incidents like these can turn tragic quickly. Each year, dozens of American children die of heat exhaustion after being left in vehicles.

Aguirre said the prior incident where a Coachella Valley Unified student was left on a bus occurred several years ago, during her term as director. It was a hot, gusty afternoon when a bus driver found an elementary-age boy pounding on the windows of a locked bus. He had been stuck inside for at least an hour, Aguirre said.

The student was also unharmed. The incident was immediately reported to the human resources department, Aguirre said. The bus driver who was responsible was allowed to split her three-day suspension over several pay periods to soften the blow to her paycheck. Aguirre said she had no control over the disciplinary decision.

Coachella Valley Unified did not respond to a request for comment on Aguirre's statements on Wednesday.

Aguirre said the recent busing incident should have been prevented by Zonar, a bus management system that Coachella Valley Unified has contracted with for decades. Zonar uses a global positioning system to track the east valley buses, but the service also includes a child check system designed to ensure kids are not left on the bus.

At the end of each route, drivers are required to swipe a Zonar scanner over several tags placed around the bus, ensuring that the driver checks the bus for problems before they leave for the day. One tag is always placed at the very back of the bus so the driver must walk past all the seats to check for students.

"It makes sure that you get up and physically check the bus. You can't rely on the mirrors. You can't rely on someone else telling you there isn't anyone left," Aguirre said. "That's the only way to be sure … but it only works if you do it."

If a driver does not scan these tags, the Zonar system automatically logs a record in the district's computers, Aguirre said. This way, the district can verify that bus drivers are taking steps to check for students at the end of their route. In the event of an incident, the district should know exactly what a bus driver did or didn't do, Aguirre said.

Coachella Valley Unified has ignored questions about the Zonar system. The system costs about $50,000 per year, according to school board documents.

On top of the Zonar monitoring, all special education buses have security cameras, Aguirre said. The cameras were installed five or six years ago, after a bus driver was accused of misconduct. When Aguirre left two years ago, all the cameras were working fine.

Coachella Valley Unified has said it will not release camera footage from Bus 111. The district has ignored questions about whether there are cameras on the buses.

Boy wants answers

On Tuesday night, a boy stepped up to the speaker's podium at the Coachella Valley Unified School Board meeting. He perched on his tiptoes and reached for the microphone.

"Why did you leave me on the bus?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

The boy's parents, Ricardo and Adrianna Aceves, have asked for their child not to be identified.

In response to the boy's question, Board President Lowell Kamper said Superintendent Darryl Adams would speak directly to the Aceves family about the busing incident. Kamper assured the family that the issue was being taken seriously.

"The board has taken care of this situation," Kamper said. "It's a personnel matter, so it's something we can't share here in open session."

The boy's family is scheduled to meet with the superintendent on Friday. The parents have said previously the school district has given them no explanation for how their son was left on the school bus.

Reporter Brett Kelman can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4642, by email at brett.kelman@desertsun.com, or on Twitter @TDSbrettkelman.