When parents send their children off to school, they expect that the adults in charge maintain a certain level of care and maintain a level of responsibility towards the children once in their care. It is not outrageous to think that that expectation extends to the time that the children are onboard a school bus traveling to and from school.
Sadly, one school bus driver broke parents’ and children’s trust with her erratic driving caused by alleged intoxication.
On March 1, a Pennsylvania school bus driver, later identified as Lori Ann Mankos, was driving 26 middle and high school students home around 2:50 p.m. Initial reports mentioned a disturbance on the bus that caused Mankos to pull the bus into a gas station. There, she parked the bus, exited, and handed the keys to a gas station employee and proceeded to walk away.
As shocking as this seems, thankfully no children were harmed. Some parents picked their children up from the gas station and others were taken home by a different bus driver.
A further investigation revealed that this seemingly innocuous, but nonetheless irresponsible, act by a school bus driver was far worse than merely abandoning the bus at the gas station. The police reported that soon after the students were picked up by Mankos, some of the students noticed a change in Mankos’s driving pattern. She wasn’t taking the usual route to the students’ home. Additionally, the students became concerned when Mankos took a right-hand turn too fast and the bus ended up almost halfway into the opposing lane. The students then started to record their wild ride and protested the erratic driving. This, apparently was the disturbance that caused Mankos to pull the bus into the gas station.
Students reported that in response to their protests, Mankos swore at them and flipped them off. In one of the videos recorded by the students, she can be heard asking if the children preferred that she stop the bus and the students call their parents to pick them up. When they agreed to her suggestion, she parked at a nearby gas station where she then proceeded to hand her keys to the station attendant and walk away. She initially refused to let the students off the bus, but the students were able to open the emergency door and get themselves out of the bus. She can be heard telling the students to “go f**k themselves.”
Police found Mankos at her residence and took her into custody. She has been charged with DUI, one count of careless driving, one count of reckless driving, and 26 counts of child endangerment (one count for each student aboard the bus).
Mankos’s mother told reporters that her daughter hadn’t been herself since she started to drive that bus route and that she believed that her daughter had a nervous breakdown.
Information has not been released regarding what substances may have been the cause of Mankos’s erratic behavior or if she has suffered any previous DUI convictions. However, in a profession where the primary responsibility is to children and their wellbeing, one would hope that the school district and bus contractor will take this opportunity to be more selective with their employees or perhaps provide better emotional and/or mental health support for their employees.
“This is not what we expect of any of our drivers,” said a spokesman for the bus contractor, Cincinnati-based First Student, which employs the driver. “Our first priority is the safety of the students, which is why we sent a reliever bus to pick them up and take them to their homes once we found they were stranded. All students are safe and accounted for. If there’s appropriate action warranted against the driver as a result of this investigation, that action will be taken.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened before in my 28 years with the district,” Northampton School District Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik told the Morning Call. “We’re extremely upset by this, but very thankful that none of the students were hurt.”
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