On Nov. 1, Jeffrey Thompson, director of transporation for St. Mary's County Public Schools provided the following statement to TheBAYNET.com: "I received your email that you sent the Board of Education and also had a message to contact you. The situation yesterday was very unfortunate and it put the driver in the bad position of choosing between getting the students to school on time or waiting for a spare bus. Knowing that it was cold and not wanting the children to be waiting for possibly 45 minutes outside, the decision was made to clean the bus as much as possible and get the students to school on time. The driver did the best she could in the limited time and had hoped that the smell was disseminated by the time the students had boarded the bus. Unfortunately there still was a slight odor on the bus while the students were being transported.
"We will be working with the contractor to find a better area to park the bus so that this situation does not happen again. The contractor has filed a report with the Sherriff’s office."
Subsequent to receiving that communication, TBN contacted the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Department. In a statement on Nov. 3, the Sheriff's Office reported that in talking with the driver, it wa discovered that the incident occured sometime during the night of Oct. 29 or in the early morning hours of Oct. 30. When the bus driver entered the bus she noticed the strong smell of what she thought was marijuana. Upon inspecting the bus, the driver discovered three marijuana cigarettes and a regular cigarette. She proceeded to sweep the evidence from the bus and opened all the windows to air the bus.
In the complaint filed with Sheriff's, the driver went on to say that when she delivered children to Esperanza Middle School that morning, some complained that they felt sick. All the children were seen by the school nurse.
The sheriff's office stated that the responding officer attempted to collect evidence at the scene and to process the bus for what evidence might have remained and that the investigation is continuing.
Original Story as Filed on Oct. 31. On the morning of Thursday, Oct. 30, school bus 579 was inspected as it is every other morning on its way to Esperanza Middle School. The bus driver noticed a strong odor in the dark, early morning hours. She had a dilemma. To request a change of equipment would leave children stranded at bus stops along her route for an additional 30 minutes in the cold, brisk air.
The bus driver made the decision to pick up the children, airing out the bus as best she could. However, children on the bus ride noticed the strong odor. Some felt nauseous and became ill.
In letters to TheBAYNET.com, two different parents told of their children’s experiences.
The following letter was received by TBN at 4:03 p.m. from a reader wishing to remain anonymous “Need to check out the story. As a parent I [was] waiting for a call form the transportation office. Bus was broken into and kids were exposed to a smell on the bus that was drug related. Kind of like your article on the web right now, odor leads to arrest, that is the same drug smell these kids were expose{d} to early this morning on a bus transporting children to Esperanza Middle School.
“[It was] Too dark to tell what was wrong is what the driver told the kids. [There was] No note to parents. Kids feeling sick and felt it was hard to breath.
“Thank you for checking this out ahead of time. Doctor’s offices are getting calls of concern as well. People need to hear about this.”
The following letter was received by TBN at 4:25 p.m. from Deborah Cole, a concerned parent, who recently withdrew her children from the St. Mary's county public school system:
“A very close friend of mine, who has a child at Esperanza Middle School, just called and said her son came home reeking of a smell of marijuana. She said her doctor's office had a lot of calls from parents who said their children were sickened by the smell of marijuana. Apparently, the school bus had been ‘broken into’ and still smelled of the odor. Instead of the driver reporting it and asking for a different bus, he picked up all his normal route to transport.
“If this had been my children's bus, I would be contacting the news channel in DC to have a full investigation of this matter. Under the transportation module on the SMCPS website, one line reads, ‘Safe, reliable and efficient transportation by bus to school....’ Obviously this wasn't safe for any of those children on today's bus.”
When asked for a comment, St. Mary’s County Public Schools Director of Transportation, Jeff Thompson stated, “The buses, by law, are left unlocked and someone used the bus during the night. The driver made the decision not to make kids wait while arrangements were made for a new bus.”
St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Department, when called, had not had any report of the incident.
St. Mary’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation deferred all information requests to SMCPS Transportation.
