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Woman stopped bus, joined daughter's fight.
The Lee County school bus driver accused of hopping off her loaded bus while the engine still was running and jumping into her daughter's street brawl resigned Friday.
Leslie Mae Jones, 33, of Fort Myers, quit after just 12 months on the job. She was arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with breach of peace and leaving a school bus unattended with children aboard.
"She came in at 7 this morning and I said, 'You can resign right now or we can go through the process,' " transportation director Lou Karnbach said.
"I had already called personnel for the termination paperwork."
Efforts to reach Jones for comment Friday were unsuccessful. She was released from the Lee County Jail late Thursday after paying a cash bond of $150.
According to Fort Myers police, Jones strayed from her n
earby bus route after her daughter telephoned about fights at the Alternati
ve Learning Center campus, which serves middle and high school students with discipline problems. Jones hopped off the running bus filled with three dozen Fort Myers Middle students to come to her daughter's aid, leaving the keys in the ignition and the motor running, police said.
Then, police say, while Jones was shouting at school officials and law enforcement, three other students ran inside Jones' unattended bus. They refused to leave upon an order from school administrators, reports show.
Three ALC students --Veplort Moore, German Neal and Michael McCollum --along with Jones' daughter, 13-year-old Olishia Green, were arrested as well.
"We will be holding hearings next week to determine what to do with them," interim ALC-Middle Principal Steve DeShazo said.
The minimum penalty for fighting is a five-day suspension; the maximum is expulsion from the school district. Although the figh
t took place off school grounds along Michigan Avenue, students still are subject to the districts disciplinary rules because a school bus was involved, DeShazo said.
"They think if they walk outside that gate they're home free," he said.
Fort Myers Middle students weren't sure what was happening at first.
Eighth-grader Sophia Vargas, 15, thought Jones was taking them somewhere to be disciplined for making too much noise.
"We're always loud," said her sister Marie Vargas, 14, also an eighth-grader.
"I was like, 'Where are we going?' " said seventh-grader Ashley Carter, 13.
Ashley said the ALC students who entered their bus were talking.
Andrea Abrams, 12, a sixth-grader at Fort Myers Middle School, said she wasn't scared but was frustrated by the delay.
"I was thinking, 'I want to go home,' " Andrea said.
School staff at Fort Myers Middle took statements from the bus ride
rs, but Principal Louise Hollins said students weren't shaken by the incident.
Jones drove two routes on Bus No. 910, one for Villas Elementary and a second for Fort Myers Middle. Her second rout
e passed just a few blocks from ALC.
Jones became the second driver in a week to land behind bars. Donald Deverso, 58, remains in jail, accused by the federal government of accessing child pornography via computer.
A third driver, Israel Jackson, 28, was arrested in January on charges of selling crack cocaine to an informant.
Not every bus operator is a bad apple, Karnbach said.
Another driver volunteered to finish Jones' route Thursday, a spirit of teamwork common among drivers, he said.
Bus operators also coordinate holiday fund-raisers and deliver food and gifts to needy families.
"It's a small percentage that makes it look bad for the majority," Karnbach said.
Lee employs 700 bus drivers.
Before driving a bus, Jones had worked in
warehousing for R.R. Donnelly in Fort Myers, transporting disabled patients to doctor's appointments for ATC Paratransit in Oak Brook, Ill., and delivering packages for DHL in Fort Myers.
On her job application with Lee schools, Jones checked yes fo
r having been involved in a motor vehicle crash and ticketed for a traffic violation.
County records show she has been ticketed for driving with an expired tag, failure to obey a traffic control device, seat belt violation and unlawful speed.
A 2003 investigation by The News-Press found that one in five bus drivers had multiple traffic violations, half had at least one ticket and 34 of 710 drivers had their licenses suspended before or during their employment with Lee schools.
District officials vowed to be more selective about whom they hired, but Superintendent James Browder said Friday they must reassess hiring practices.
Applicants already undergo standard background and criminal checks through an FBI database; he is not s
ure what more the district can do.
"We are going to critically evaluate where we head in the future," Browder said.
The state is requiring school districts to refingerprint all employees electronically to be stored in a database and to subject employees to FBI checks
every five years.
Woman stopped bus, joined daughter's fight.
The Lee County school bus driver accused of hopping off her loaded bus while the engine still was running and jumping into her daughter's street brawl resigned Friday.
Leslie Mae Jones, 33, of Fort Myers, quit after just 12 months on the job. She was arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with breach of peace and leaving a school bus unattended with children aboard.
"She came in at 7 this morning and I said, 'You can resign right now or we can go through the process,' " transportation director Lou Karnbach said.
"I had already called personnel for the termination paperwork."
Efforts to reach Jones for comment Friday were unsuccessful. She was released from the Lee County Jail late Thursday after paying a cash bond of $150.
According to Fort Myers police, Jones strayed from her n
earby bus route after her daughter telephoned about fights at the Alternati
ve Learning Center campus, which serves middle and high school students with discipline problems. Jones hopped off the running bus filled with three dozen Fort Myers Middle students to come to her daughter's aid, leaving the keys in the ignition and the motor running, police said.
Then, police say, while Jones was shouting at school officials and law enforcement, three other students ran inside Jones' unattended bus. They refused to leave upon an order from school administrators, reports show.
Three ALC students --Veplort Moore, German Neal and Michael McCollum --along with Jones' daughter, 13-year-old Olishia Green, were arrested as well.
"We will be holding hearings next week to determine what to do with them," interim ALC-Middle Principal Steve DeShazo said.
The minimum penalty for fighting is a five-day suspension; the maximum is expulsion from the school district. Although the figh
t took place off school grounds along Michigan Avenue, students still are subject to the districts disciplinary rules because a school bus was involved, DeShazo said.
"They think if they walk outside that gate they're home free," he said.
Fort Myers Middle students weren't sure what was happening at first.
Eighth-grader Sophia Vargas, 15, thought Jones was taking them somewhere to be disciplined for making too much noise.
"We're always loud," said her sister Marie Vargas, 14, also an eighth-grader.
"I was like, 'Where are we going?' " said seventh-grader Ashley Carter, 13.
Ashley said the ALC students who entered their bus were talking.
Andrea Abrams, 12, a sixth-grader at Fort Myers Middle School, said she wasn't scared but was frustrated by the delay.
"I was thinking, 'I want to go home,' " Andrea said.
School staff at Fort Myers Middle took statements from the bus ride
rs, but Principal Louise Hollins said students weren't shaken by the incident.
Jones drove two routes on Bus No. 910, one for Villas Elementary and a second for Fort Myers Middle. Her second rout
e passed just a few blocks from ALC.
Jones became the second driver in a week to land behind bars. Donald Deverso, 58, remains in jail, accused by the federal government of accessing child pornography via computer.
A third driver, Israel Jackson, 28, was arrested in January on charges of selling crack cocaine to an informant.
Not every bus operator is a bad apple, Karnbach said.
Another driver volunteered to finish Jones' route Thursday, a spirit of teamwork common among drivers, he said.
Bus operators also coordinate holiday fund-raisers and deliver food and gifts to needy families.
"It's a small percentage that makes it look bad for the majority," Karnbach said.
Lee employs 700 bus drivers.
Before driving a bus, Jones had worked in
warehousing for R.R. Donnelly in Fort Myers, transporting disabled patients to doctor's appointments for ATC Paratransit in Oak Brook, Ill., and delivering packages for DHL in Fort Myers.
On her job application with Lee schools, Jones checked yes fo
r having been involved in a motor vehicle crash and ticketed for a traffic violation.
County records show she has been ticketed for driving with an expired tag, failure to obey a traffic control device, seat belt violation and unlawful speed.
A 2003 investigation by The News-Press found that one in five bus drivers had multiple traffic violations, half had at least one ticket and 34 of 710 drivers had their licenses suspended before or during their employment with Lee schools.
District officials vowed to be more selective about whom they hired, but Superintendent James Browder said Friday they must reassess hiring practices.
Applicants already undergo standard background and criminal checks through an FBI database; he is not s
ure what more the district can do.
"We are going to critically evaluate where we head in the future," Browder said.
The state is requiring school districts to refingerprint all employees electronically to be stored in a database and to subject employees to FBI checks
every five years.
