Pupil Incident Fallout: Who’s Driving the Bus?

For 10 young special education pupils, the extra hour it took them to get home from school one evening last month will remain vivid in memory for years to come.

“I was scared I might die,” 10-year-old Patty Lira told police later.

Patty, who has a learning disability, was expected home from Santa Ana’s Martin Elementary School between 3 and 3:15 p.m. that day, but it was about 4 before the school bus dropped her off. Before the evening was out, she and other students would tell Santa Ana police a chilling tale of being abducted by their 25-year-old bus driver, who, they said, threatened to blow them up.

Screening of Drivers

The alleged abduction has provoked debate among parents, school board members and state officials over the adequacy of government and private measures used to screen applicants for driving jobs.

Three weeks after the incident, the Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution asking the California Highway Patrol to strengthen provisions for automatically denying or revoking a school bus driver’s certificate.

Ignacio R. Granados, then an employee of Taylor Bus Service of Anaheim, allegedly picked up his busload of children as usual after the final bell Feb. 20 at the Santa Ana school.

Threatened to Set Fire

But then, for reasons that still are unclear, he took the bus onto a freeway, stopped at Santiago Park, poured gasoline onto the floor of the bus and threatened to ignite it, police said. He then delivered the children to their homes unharmed.

According to police, Granados acted strangely after his arrest. During a tape-recorded interview, “Granados’ mood became very violent, as though he was going to jump out of his seat,” a police report said. When asked about the gasoline and the threat to the children, Granados stated that “he doesn’t know what we were talking about,” the report said, and Granados said he “didn’t remember what happened” the day of his arrest except that he drove on a freeway.

Granados has pleaded innocent to charges of false imprisonment and child endangerment and is being held in Orange County Jail without bail.

When he was hired by Taylor in 1985, Granados already had been convicted of harassing a college teacher and had served jail terms in 1984 and 1985 for failing to appear in court on traffic charges. And yet he qualified easily for a school bus driver’s certificate issued by the Highway Patrol.

Driver Turnover High

Turnover is high among school bus drivers, who make from $4 to $10 an hour for what generally is part-time work, officials at several bus firms said in recent interviews. Because of the demand for drivers and the scarcity of applicants, obtaining a CHP certificate all but guarantees an applicant a job, they said.

Officials at Taylor Bus Service, which employs 1,300 drivers throughout Southern California and pays $6 to $8 an hour, said they relied heavily on CHP certification in hiring Granados because of the CHP’s thorough, FBI-style background check on applicants. But the CHP says it only reviews applicants’ training and leaves the background checks to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which relies on an FBI computer printout of applicants’ criminal records.

Officials from both the Highway Patrol and Department of Motor Vehicles said they knew about Granados’ criminal record but decided to issue him a certificate to drive a school bus because his prior offenses were about two years old and relatively minor. Ralph Haessler, one of four DMV employees in Sacramento who review certificate applicants, said the offenses were not a reliable indicator of future problems involving contact with children.

Patty Lira’s mother doesn’t care for that explanation. Teresa Lira said her daughter has been through extreme psychological trauma, and she believes that the laws should be changed to prevent a similar incident from ever happening again.

Unwilling to Ride Buses

“My daughter doesn’t want to ride the bus anymore,” she said in an interview three weeks after the incident. “She’s afraid of men. . . . The laws should have eliminated him (Granados) from becoming a school bus driver.”

Now, she said, she takes her daughter to school herself.

“Doing this makes me too late to take my three other children to their school,” she said. “So they walk by themselves. One is too young, in kindergarten. But I have no choice.”

Currently, the CHP automatically denies applications for school bus driver certificates for felony sex-offense convictions, hit-and-run driving, reckless driving, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or driving with a license that was suspended or revoked for major, safety-related traffic violations.

In its recent resolution, the Santa Ana Unified School District board asked the CHP to expand that list to include 13 other reasons for denial that now are considered “discretionary.” The discretionary list includes “irrational behavior” and violations of the Vehicle Code or other laws “governing the safe operation of vehicles, the use of highways, or pupil transportation safety.”

Board member Joan Wilkinson, who requested adoption of the resolution, said the Granados case “certainly makes us aware of a shortcoming or loophole” in existing driver certification rules.

The board also requested school district staff members to strengthen an existing program, run jointly by the school district and Taylor Bus Service, that is intended to train school bus drivers in how to interact with children and respond to stressful situations. When the alleged abduction occurred, Granados reportedly was angry about the use of foul language by children on his bus.

Decisions Defended

CHP officials said they will not respond to the board’s request for tougher licensing regulations until they have received the proposal and studied it. And officials from the CHP, the DMV and Taylor Bus Service all defend their decisions involving Granados and the system that allowed him to be placed in a job that involves working with children.

Before the CHP will issue a school bus driver’s certificate, an applicant must successfully complete 40 hours of training in driving a bus and pass CHP-administered written exams and driving tests. State officials said the DMV reviews the applicant’s driving record and criminal “rap sheet,” an FBI computer printout listing arrests and convictions.

Although he doesn’t specifically recall Granados, CHP driver certificate inspector Dave Bennett said there is little doubt that he tested the Santa Ana man and processed his application for a certificate.

“We give a test on the rules and regulations, a test on first aid and the driving test,” Bennett said. “We don’t get into psychological questions. . . . If there’s somebody who’s completely off base when they’re around me, I’ll try to do something about it. But that is a very small percentage. I don’t recall that happening in his case.”

Bennett and other CHP officials said Granados truthfully answered questions on his application form related to previous convictions and license suspensions, but they said it’s the DMV that actually reviews the information when prior offenses fall into the “discretionary” category for certificate rejection or approval.

Said Haessler: “We knew that he (Granados) was convicted back in 1984 for a misdemeanor. . . . It was decided that this was over two years old and we didn’t investigate it any further. . . . The rap sheep showed the misdemeanor was for trespassing and failure to leave campus when ordered, and that could have been anything, like carrying a picket sign during a protest march. We have to go by what’s on the sheet, and it didn’t say anything about harassing a teacher.”

Followed College Teacher

In fact, according to court records, Granados became infatuated with a teacher at Rancho Santiago College, followed her around campus and was arrested three times in 1984 for refusing repeated requests to leave her alone. The arresting officers cited Penal Code sections entitled “Loiter at Adult School--Molest Pupils,” “Remain on Campus Without Consent” and “Disrupt School Activities.” Granados was fined $200 and placed on three years probation.

Haessler said it would take more money from the Legislature, a much bigger staff and a lot more time to process applicants if the DMV were to review court records for every misdemeanor conviction before issuing a bus operator’s certificate. However, he admitted that the department does obtain arrest reports in some cases.

“I would have thought twice, but even then it wouldn’t have been an automatic rejection if I had known that Granados had harassed a teacher, because it was two years old,” Haessler said.

In 1985, the last year for which figures are available, the DMV rejected 218 applications for school bus operator certificates, according to Haessler, who is staff manager of the DMV’s driver safety and improvement program. The department canceled 545 certificates in 1985. And, provoked by specific offenses, the DMV immediately revoked another 339. There were 174 short-term certificate suspensions for minor infractions, Haessler said.

As of December, 1986, the DMV had on record 10,428 valid school bus driver certificates.

“It’s always nice to tighten up,” Haessler said of efforts to strengthen the licensing rules. “But you have to have some discretion here. . . . I think we’ve got the best school bus program in the nation.”

Regulation by State

Ron Kinney, the state Department of Education’s director of pupil transportation, said California is one of the few states that does not leave regulation of school bus drivers to local districts. But while strongly defending California’s screening procedures, he said the DMV may have become more lenient recently.

An 18-year veteran of the department and a former bus driver, Kinney said: “There may have been a deterioration of a standard that was once more stringent, but I can’t prove it. I just seem to remember that it was tougher in years past.” The Virginia-based National School Transportation Assn. recently surveyed all 50 states and reported that California was among the 38 that require school bus drivers to show evidence that they have successfully completed special training courses. And California was among only 22 states that require a check of drivers’ criminal records.

Tom Berthold, president of Taylor Bus Service, said bus companies such as his cannot afford to hire investigative staffs.

“The school districts would have to pay us a lot more money for us to be able to afford those kinds of resources,” Berthold said. “And they get their money from the taxpayers, and getting more money out of taxpayers hasn’t met with particular success lately, as far as I can see.”

“We’ve never had a case like this happen,” Berthold added, referring to Granados. “In fact, our drivers are regularly recognized by the PTA for their service.

‘Good Enough for Us’

“And who am I to challenge the CHP’s certificate? Our policy has been that if a person is good enough for the CHP, he’s good enough for us. It’s that simple.”

Another problem, Berthold said, is that it’s illegal for bus companies to ask job applicants about most misdemeanor convictions and physical conditions not directly related to driving skills.

Brian W. Hembacher, assistant chief counsel for the Fair Employment and Housing Commission, agreed. He cited a state Labor Code provision that specifically bars questions about arrests or convictions for misdemeanors unless they’re accompanied by a written disclaimer that the information provided will not necessarily preclude the applicant from getting the job.

“We don’t want to be accused of violating anyone’s civil rights,” Berthold said.