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Bus Driver Accused of Stranding 6-Year-Old

Posted on: Thursday, 9 March 2006, 21:00 CST

DAVENPORT, Iowa - A school bus driver has been arrested and fired after allegedly dropping off a 6-year-old boy six miles from home. Kathryn Gilbraith, 53, is accused of telling the boy to get off the bus and walk home after he missed his stop on Monday.

A woman found the boy crying in a central Davenport neighborhood and called police, who charged Gilbraith with child endangerment.

"All he could say is, 'I need 911,'" said Jo Robbins, who discovered the Eisenhower Elementary School student near her home. "Poor little guy. He was just so scared. I sat him on my step and helped him out a bit. It's not a very good neighborhood where I live. I am just glad nothing happened to him."

Gilbraith, who lives in Milan, Ill., was fired after the incident, said Steve Watt, manager of First Student, which runs the district's bus service.

Watt said the child was picked up at his usual spot Monday morning but did not get off when the bus arrived at Eisenhower. He realized he had missed his stop when the bus started picking up students from another school, and he asked the driver to take him to Eisenhower, Watt said. That's when Gilbraith allegedly told the boy to walk home.

Gilbraith defended her actions, saying she was a substitute driver on a bus route she had never done before and was running 20 minutes late. She said she wanted the boy to walk home to ask his mother which bus he should be riding.

"My perception is that he had gotten on the wrong bus," said Gilbraith, who had worked for First Student for two years. "I didn't want to take him somewhere else if his house was right there."

Gilbraith said the boy was upset, but it didn't affect her decision because "6-year-olds get upset if a leaf falls."

Watt said similar incidents rarely occur. His company transports 6,000 children per day for the Davenport public school system.

"The driver, she didn't do her job," he said. "She should have checked the bus after she dropped off at Eisenhower. That's part of her job. She did not do that. That's why she was terminated. We avoided what could have been a real tragedy."

School district spokeswoman Karen Farley said in an e-mail that other drivers from First Student have acted responsibly, but the district is concerned about Gilbraith's judgment, which she called "extremely poor."

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Information from: Quad-City Times, http://www.qctimes.com

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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