Krise Transportation bus driver investigated after parent complaint

Penn Hills resident and parent Ebony Gaston voiced a complaint about Krise Transportation to the Penn Hills School Board on Sept. 27 after a bus driver for the company allegedly grabbed and shook her 10-year-old daughter.

Gaston said that on Sept. 12, the driver told all the children to sit in their assigned seats. However, another student was already sitting in her daughter’s assigned seat and she had to find another open seat.

Gaston said that part-way through the drive, the driver pulled the bus over, walked to the back of the bus and grabbed the girl out of her seat, making her move to her assigned seat.

“A grown woman decided to go to my daughter and instead of asking or telling her to go to her seat, she … put both her hands on my daughter and shook and yanked my daughter out of her seat,” Gaston said.

After her daughter told her about the event, Gaston attempted to speak with the driver at her daughter’s stop. She said that she did not get on the bus, but waited for students to get off and spoke to the driver through the open bus door.

“I said ‘excuse me ma’am, my daughter told me that you put your hands on her,’” Gaston said. “She said ‘yes, I did,’ and then she said that the (bus) cameras had been rolling. Just like that, she slammed the door on me and drove off.”

Gaston said that she reported the incident to the Penn Hills Police and Krise, and informed Penn Hills Elementary School principal Kristin Brown of the situation.

Gaston said that she had left multiple messages with the transportation company and didn’t hear back from them for some time, until the police and school board president Erin Vecchio got involved. They told her that there had been an issue with the cameras on the vehicle, and the incident had not been caught on camera.

“My daughter loves school,” Gaston said. “The fact that I can’t go to work and be comfortable with my daughter getting on that bus to school is a problem for me.”

Krise later informed Gaston that the driver was suspended until the investigation was finished. She did not receive any more updates from the company regarding the driver’s status.

She plans to make a formal complaint to the district, and asked that school board members hold the bus company accountable.

“We’re going to investigate the situation,” said Bruce Dice, Penn Hills School District solicitor. “From what I could glean from the story, the transportation company put the driver on leave. I’m not sure what else we could do about it after that.”

Dice said that once Gaston’s complaint is entered, the district would investigate the issue and see what needs to happen for the situation to not occur again.

“We would never condone anyone putting their hands on a child that isn’t theirs,” Dice said. “Maybe the driver needs training, I don’t know, but we will want to investigate the situation.”

Gaston said she had a previous run-in with Krise Transportation when one of their drivers hit her vehicle with a school bus. She said that she had been told that the cameras on the bus hadn’t been working then either, and hadn’t caught the accident. Tim Krise, president of Krise Transportation, said that each bus has four cameras and are maintained regularly.

“I can buy a new vehicle,” Gaston said. “That’s okay. I can get another one. But my daughter? I want to keep her. She’s perfect.”

According to Krise, the bus driver has been reported to ChildLine, is still suspended and under investigation.

“We always take accusations seriously and we use an outside agency to investigate situations,” said Krise. “Drivers are not allowed to come until they have been cleared by an investigation.”