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Dallas County Bus Driver Overlooks Autistic Child

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Sep 21, 2009 6:03 pm US/Central

Dallas County Bus Driver Overlooks Autistic Child

Reporting
Steve Pickett

DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 2: KTVT / KTXA
Click to enlarge 2 of 2: Reagan Elementary student John Gonzales.
KTVT / KTXA

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The agency in Dallas County that oversees safe transportation of schoolchildren is investigating one of its drivers. They've placed him on leave after he couldn't find a child with special needs. The little boy is fine now, but some are asking 'How could something like this happen?'

Each day 14 children, with special needs, leave Reagan Elementary School in Oak Cliff on a bus especially for them.

John Gonzales is a 6-year-old that rides that bus. John is autistic and has the communication skills of an 18-month old.

Last week John boarded his bus heading home, but never arrived. Family members started calling bus dispatchers when John wasn't dropped off at the house. "The bus driver says he doesn't have him on the bus, and I said, 'No. He has to be on the bus'," recalled John's mother Mary Barrera.

CBS 11 News has learned that the driver claimed the child was not on board the bus and for almost two hours the six-year old boys' family couldn't find him.

It turns out John was on the bus and had apparently fallen asleep in a seat.

Now by Reagan Elementary School principal, Sebastian Bozas, and John's mother both want to know how a driver of children with special needs could overlook a child who can't communicate. "I don't want this to happen to any child, not just mine, but any child who can't explain to mommy what happened to me," Barrera said.

Dallas County Schools is the agency contracted to carry 60,000 children to and from school daily. DCS must find out why the driver didn't know an autistic child under his watch was on board, until a dispatcher called him. "I think anytime this happens we have a responsibility to look at our processors, to see what we can do better in this case, and that's what we're doing," said Dallas County Schools spokesperson Deanne Hullender.

In a complaint filed by Principal Bozas, the bus driver failed to show adequate concern for the special needs child.

The bus driver, Arthur Hamilton, couldn't be reached by CBS 11 News. He's been a Dallas County Schools driver since March of 2008 but is now on paid leave pending a final investigation.

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