VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla.,None — A Volusia County school bus driver may be fired Tuesday night after being accused of texting while driving with kids on the bus. School officials say they have video of Tamika Whitaker steering the bus with her knees and are now planning to fire her.
The bus driver is currently off the job and expected to appeal the forthcoming firing.
The bus driver was working longer than she was supposed to, so supervisors looked at bus video to see what she was doing. Not only did it show the cell phone talking and texting, but it showed her driving with a drink mug so big it blocked her view of the road.
In a letter to Tamika Whitaker, it states her 7-year career as a bus driver is over. Video from one of the buses that she drove showed that, during two days in May, she was talking on the phone and even driving with her knees at times so she could text.
"Don't trust the drivers. I mean, you see too many things. Fights break out on bus, between driver and students. Students fight. I'd just as soon bring my own kid," parent Lee Cremeans said.
Whitaker's bus wasn't always full of kids. An investigative report says sometimes it was just parked on a street in New Smyrna Beach, off her regular route. She would leave it for 10 minutes at a time, the report says, and not bother checking it when she got back.
It was the cell phone use, though, that seemed to bother most parents WFTV talked to.
"I will not answer my phone if it rings and I'm driving," parent Lisa Cremeans said.
Whitaker had received "satisfactory" evaluations during the last two years, but any one of the four violations she's accused of would have been enough for firing.
WFTV tried to find Whitaker for comment, but no one came to the door at the address the district had listed for her.
The report also says Whitaker admitted to everything she's accused of, but is now appealing the decision to fire her. The district says nothing she did rises to the level of any criminal charges.
WFTV
