During a public comment period preceding a regular meeting of the Central Dauphin School Board on Monday, school district resident Terry King presented a 308-signature petition supporting dismissed bus driver Joe O’Neil.
A 308-signature petition asks Central Dauphin School District to rehire bus driver Joe O'Neil, who was fired in April for leaving his bus.
O’Neil was fired in April 2013 by Durham School Services, Central Dauphin’s transportation contractor, after the bus company said he endangered pupils by getting off the bus without calling his dispatcher.
King, who said he is a good friend of O’Neil’s, called the action “unwarranted” and said the petitioners want O’Neil returned to his former job on bus route 7802.
Speaking outside the school board meeting, O’Neil admitted he exited the bus near the intersection of Ridgeview and Curvin drives in Lower Paxton Township on April 23, but he said he did so after a student’s glasses fell out of the bus window and onto the street.
O’Neil said he secured the bus and engaged the flashers. He said he took less than a minute to retrieve the child’s glasses. There were 10-15 elementary students on the bus at the time, O’Neil said.
He was fired April 25. He has appealed the action and is awaiting an arbitration hearing.
“Where they’re getting him is, he didn’t call his dispatcher,” said Donna Ricupero, president of the Central Dauphin Bus Drivers’ Association. The drivers’ union believes discipline was warranted, “but not to lose his job. … There was no progressive discipline used here,” Ricupero said.
“The Central Dauphin School District deserves and needs qualified bus drivers who care about the students,” King told the school board.
O’Neil said he drove a bus for Durham for two years. He is now working for Rohrer Bus Services in the Susquehanna School District. “I love driving a school bus,” he said.
School board President Ford Thompson said the issue is in Durham’s jurisdiction. O’Neil “was an employee of Durham and it’s a personnel matter,” Thompson said.
Bill Yohn, local terminal manager for Durham, referred questions to the company’s communications officer, who was not immediately available Monday night.