By John Dobberstein, Editor
A 13-minute video released by the Broken Arrow Public Schools depicts a tense situation that unfolded last Friday between a bus driver and students that led to the driver being arrested.
Thomas Ashley Young, 68, of Tulsa was charged with kidnapping and child endangerment stemming from the incident, which forced Broken Arrow police and district administrators to intervene to get the students home. Young was booked at the Tulsa County Jail and bond was set at $60,000.
Numerous times in the video, provided to the Broken Arrow Sentinel by BAPS through an Open Records Act request, an obviously frustrated Young told rancorous students on the bus to be quiet. As the video starts Younge is heard saying, “Who understands the rules? What’s rule No. 1?” A student answers, “Stay in your seat.”
Young answered in the affirmative, then yells for the students to be quiet several times. “I can pull over, fine. I don’t care. Doesn’t make any difference to me,” he says. At that point Young shuts off the engine and takes a drink from his travel mug while a child says, “Hey, let me off.”
After the atmosphere calms down, Young says, “OK, now I can talk. Now that we’re (inaudible) like we are in the morning … because I’m not going to talk…”
Some of the students continued talking and getting out of their seats, and other students were telling them to stop talking.
‘I’ll wait forever’
“Sit down. Sit down. I don’t care. Sit down,” Young says. “No you’re not getting home in 10 minutes. I don’t care. Be quiet. We’re not moving until I don’t hear any speaking. You think you can get away with stuff. I run my bus a certain way. I don’t care what other bus drivers do. You obey me. Otherwise, I will keep stopping. Let’s be quiet a minute and I will talk to you.”
After a few minutes a student apparently says a parent is visible.
“Sit down. I don’t care if your mom’s there,” Young says. “It doesn’t make any difference to me. You’re not going with your Mom. I don’t care. I’ll wait forever.”
Eventually Young picks up his school radio and notifies administrators he is stopped as students continue to demand they be let off the bus. One student complains, “We’ve been here like 40 minutes” as some students begin walking toward the front door.
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“I don’t care. Sit down. I’m not budging,” Young says to them, at one point trying to restrain one of the students from his seat.
After what sounds like people pounding on the windows or doors, the driver continues to say “sit down” and some children can be heard crying in the background. It’s at this point that students may have begun to escape through exit doors and Thomas starts moving the bus forward.
A voice on the school radio says “She’s on her way. Going to be there soon,” possibly referencing a different driver being brought in. After that, Thomas stops the bus again and takes off his seat belt.
“You can see that I don’t care what parents do,” Young says. “If they smack the bus, I don’t care. I don’t’ care if they get violent and break windows. Makes no difference to me. They’ve got someone coming right now. That’s the way it is. I will win every time.”
Eventually Young gets out of his seat and walks toward the students.
“Listen up. I’m going to win every time. Listen up. I am a bus driver. I have to take you there safely. What do you want to do? It makes no difference to me. You guys are in trouble because they’ve got people coming out.”
Discipline possible
As for the students, BAPS officials are reviewing video of the incident to determine which students potentially engaged in any unruly behavior that violates the district’s policies.
Tara Thompson, chief communications officer for Broken Arrow Public Schools, says district’s bus regulations are included in the student handbook and the bus is “treated as an extension of the classroom.”
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The school district’s “Bus Regulations for Students” says transportation “is a privilege granted to students, and the district may suspend that privilege as a discipline for inappropriate behavior when it is in the best interest of the school and/or to ensure the safety of students and staff.”
The district’s policy states, among other things:
- Students are not allowed to get on or off a bus at any stop other than his/her assigned stop without pre-approval.
- Students should never be standing or walking in the aisle, and those who can’t follow safety guidelines “create a danger to themselves and will be subject to bus suspension.”
- It’s the driver’s responsibility to enforce the bus rules and to correct any student on the bus for unsafe behavior. “A driver has the authority to assign a seat to any or all students for any reason and for any length of time. Assigned seats can be given for preventive reasons.”
- Excessive noise can distract a driver’s attention, the handbook states. “Therefore, there may be occasions when a driver needs to place limitations on talking/visiting in order to create a less distracting atmosphere. At times, a driver may restrict students from talking to other students, unless they are seated beside them or directly across the aisle. This limitation prevents students from having to yell and keeps them properly seated. At times, a driver may require days of ‘no talking,’ in order to achieve better results in holding noise levels to a minimum.”
- Failure to cooperate with school official transportation personnel “will result in an automatic suspension.”
The district cannot discuss student discipline matters, “but we do intend to discipline any students found to be in violation of district policies,” Thompson says. She added that BAPS bus drivers are trained in various de-escalation techniques and are provided solutions that include calling for back-up from the site or transportation terminal.
“Our biggest concern in this incident, and there were many concerns, is that the driver drove away while students were exiting the back of the bus,” Thompson says. “That child endangerment is simply not something we can tolerate, but it became a moot point when he was charged with two felonies.
“The school district is not able to legally employ felons, so even if his actions were something we could address and remediate, the charges eliminated that option for us.”
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