A school district on Wednesday fired its bus driver who drank alcohol while driving high school students home in Long Island, New York, according to officials.
While no one sustained injuries, a camera caught the driver “drinking an alcoholic beverage,” the New York Post reported. Police told Newsday that they have opened an investigation into the matter, and also confirmed with News 12 that they had found an open container.
Long Island school bus driver fired for drinking while taking kids home https://t.co/gmPvW5GfD0 pic.twitter.com/NxnjVDBQet
— New York Post (@nypost) October 5, 2023
“Once aware, the district intervened immediately and bus company staff met the bus driver at Great Hollow Middle School prior to dismissal,” School district Superintendent Mark Secaur told parents in an email, according to the New York Post.
“It was confirmed that an alcoholic beverage was on board, and the driver was promptly taken from the bus, and a different driver completed the route,” Secaur reportedly wrote. (RELATED: Bus Driver Allegedly Traps Students Inside Bus. Video Shows Kids Screaming, One Climbing Out The Window)
There is “zero tolerance for this behavior,” Secaur went on to write, according to the New York Post. “Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, that driver will no longer transport any Smithtown student.”
WE Transport, the school bus company that employs drivers, also quickly fired the driver, a spokesman for the company confirmed to the New York Post.