Sep 30, 2009 10:33 pm US/Central
Local School Bus Company Under Fire Again
Mom Wants Explanation For Daughter's Bruises
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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A mom wants to know how her 3rd grade daughter got these bruises after getting off of a First Student school bus.
CBS
School bus drivers take care of the most precious cargo. As parents, we trust they will get our children to and from school safely. But CBS Investigator Dave Savini uncovers shocking new allegations of safety problems at one of the area's largest school bus companies. It's a case of school bus insecurity.
A 3rd grader's mother showed CBS 2 photos of her daughter's bruised body; pictures taken after she got off of a First Student School Bus.
"I want an explanation as to how the bruises got there" she said.
She wanted to share her daughter's story while protecting her autistic child's privacy, and says no one has been able to give her an explanation as to why her daughter has these bruises.
Her daughter is the second autistic girl from a school in Indian Prairie District 204 allegedly harmed aboard a First Student school bus this year.
In another recent incident, a 5th grader's driver was arrested after allegedly exposing himself to her in a secluded parking lot.
First Student also had serious safety issues in Northbrook this month with Hanna Sclair-Siegel's bus driver.
She said, "I was so scared during the whole ride. We were like, 'what's going to happen? What's going to happen?"
According to the children on the bus, the driver swerved from lane to lane on the Edens expressway, got off at the Old Orchard exit ramp and started striking reflectors along the way.
The bus driver, Brian Skoglund, was charged with 41 counts of child endangerment for operating the First Student bus under the influence of drugs.
Adam Rubinberg was sitting in the front row when Skoglund crashed.
"It was really frightening," he said.
The 2 Investigators have learned this isn't the first time Skoglund's had trouble behind the wheel.
He last worked for the Village of Skokie, but records obtained by CBS2 show in 2007 he was observed driving a village vehicle "erratically". In 2009, he was observed as being "incoherent", and was terminated after failing a drug test last February.
Three months later, First Student hired him to drive school buses.
The 2 Investigators showed Skoglund's termination records to Hanna's mother Elyn Sclair.
"It's pitiful, it's sickening", Sclair said. "It absolutely infuriates me."
Adam Rubinberg's mother, Amy, says, "He shouldn't be allowed to drive. Forget driving kids to school, this man shouldn't be on the road."
And they are concerned about all the other problems the bus company has had with drivers this year.
In May, a driver for a Plainfield school was busted with child porn.
Also in May,
police shot and killed another First Student driver after a high speed chase in Riverdale.
When asked if she still thinks about the scary bus ride on the Edens expressway, Hanna Sclair-Siegel said, "Yeah. My mom doesn't want me to ever go on the bus again."
First Student officials say they were given a positive reference from Skoglund's past employer.
The Village Of Skokie told CBS 2 in a statement: "No one in an authorized position gave a reference or has been contacted by the bus company, if they have a written reference then the village of Skokie would like to see it."
Brian Skoglund says he was fired because of a medical condition. Records we obtained showed he had blacked out on several occasions connected to his diabetes. He says he thinks this is what happened during the bus accident.
District 204 has not returned calls about the bruises to the autistic child. The mother says DCFS is investigating.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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