Had it happened a year ago, there would have been no video documentation of a Snohomish School District driver yanking a kindergarten student to the floor of a moving bus Jan. 20.
The footage made national news when the girl’s mother released it to the media earlier this month. Daniel Taylor, who had been warned before not to touch students because of previous parent complaints, resigned Feb. 1 after a school district investigation.
Snohomish had cameras in a few buses up until last year. In an effort to improve student safety, the district began outfitting all its buses with cameras last spring and installed the last ones in the fall, school district spokeswoman Kristin Foley said.
Most large school districts in the county have video surveillance in some but not all buses.
In Lake Stevens, for instance, 45 of 66 buses have cameras.
In the Mukilteo School District, about 40 percent of buses have cameras. New buses come equipped with three cameras, district spokesman Andy Muntz said.
Mukilteo rotates buses with cameras to routes where there might be discipline issues among students. Cost prevents the district from equipping all its buses with cameras, Muntz said.
In the Edmonds School District, all the new school buses also are equipped with video equipment.
School transportation leaders say the cameras have several functions. They can serve as a deterrent to bad behavior and identify students causing trouble. In the Snohomish case, the video footage became a part of the investigation into the driver’s behavior.
School transportation officials say video also can provide valuable training for drivers.
Many districts also have bus drivers give verbal and written warnings, contact parents and assign seats when there are problems.
Allan Jones, the state’s director of transportation, reviewed the Snohomish video. A bus driver for Seattle schools for 14 years and an instructor since 1989, Jones said two-thirds of people who begin training to become school bus drivers do not finish, he said.
“It takes a special kind of person to be able to deal with a large number of people behind you,” he said.
Children’s ages can be a factor in how bus drivers handle student behavior, Edmonds School District spokeswoman DJ Jakala said.
“For preschool and kindergarten-aged students, a driver who is up and helping load students will help guide them into their seat,” she said. “Certainly, grabbing a student is not taught or encouraged and trying to not be reactive is vital.”
Alejandro Dominguez contributed to this story.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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