- DeWitt Public Schools confirmed that an incident occurred on a school bus between two students on February 27
- The bus driver says he warned the district for months that a special needs student should’ve been removed from the bus
- Video shows the bus driver speaking during Monday’s school board meeting and one parent explaining what the driver’s resignation means
Dennis Kowalski was a landscaper for over 30 years before COVID-19 decimated his business and forced him to sell.
For the past two years, Kowalski has worked as a school bus driver for DeWitt Public Schools, where he says the students he drives every day give him life.
Kowalski’s two-year stint as a bus driver came to an end on February 28, when he resigned following an incident the day before.
“It just wasn’t a good situation, and it was avoidable,” Kowalski explained.
The incident Kowalski told me about Monday night, just minutes before the district’s school board meeting, occurred on February 27.
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According to Kowalski, a fourth-grade student with special needs was riding the bus that day when a kindergarten-aged student approached him and claimed that the older student had hit him.
“[The student] had a red mark on his head and he had been crying saying he’d been hit,” Kowalski told CNN. “I turned around and other students were saying that he had been hit in the face.”
Kowalski claims he had asked aides outside the bus to come and remove the student.
“The aides got on the bus, the student was yelling [profanities], screaming, kicking,” Kowalski recalled.” “I had to evacuate the bus through the back door, put the kids in the cafeteria and then get another bus out to me so that I could take them home.”
According to Kowalski, the incident caused a 30-minute delay in drop-offs and shook up some students.
“I saw the fear in children. “I had little girls crying,” Kowalski explained. “The next morning when I got on the bus to drive, I had students that didn’t want to get on the bus until they knew that student wasn’t on the bus.”
QR codes monitor school bus safety records as students return to class.
There were about 65 students on the bus that day, and Kowalski says two of them have special needs.
Kowalski blames the school district for not doing enough to keep the students safe on the bus.
“A special needs student who has an aide all day long in school in a small classroom environment should not be thrown onto a bus with a driver like myself and 65 screaming kids,” according to Kowalski.
The following day, Kowalski says he met with George Gibson, the district’s transportation director, to discuss the situation. Kowalski claims they reviewed security camera footage from the incident.
“The videotape was black.” “You couldn’t see anything on that tape,” Kowalski explained.
Gibson allegedly asked Kowalski why he didn’t get up from his seat.
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“I’m a big guy, there’s no reason for me to stand over that child and intimidate him any further,” replied Kowalski. “I had help right outside the door that was supposed to take care of him: his aides.”
Kowalski claims he has warned the school district since January to remove the student in question from the bus in order to create a safer environment for other students.
“I told Gibson that this is on you. It’s not the child’s fault. It’s not my responsibility. It’s on you, your boss, or whoever decided to let this student stay on this bus for months,” Kowalski said.
Kowalski stated that he returned to the district last Friday to meet with the school’s human resources director. Kowalski was unaware that Superintendent Kevin Robydek would be present at the meeting.
Kowalski asked to record the meeting, but it was denied. According to Kowalski, the meeting ended shortly afterwards.
“I’m not going to have a ‘he-said-she-said’ two-on-one,” Kowalski declared.
Kowalski says he’s not worried about regaining his job. One neighbor, Katie Gervasi, told me that Kowalski had had a significant impact on her son.
“[My son] actually decided that he wanted to become a bus driver just like Mr. K,” Gervasi told me.
However, Gervasi claims Kowalski’s departure leaves a bus-sized hole for the district to fill.
“In a time where the entire state is short on bus drivers we can’t afford to lose quality drivers or quality employees,” according to Gervasi.
Eleven days after the incident, DPS sent a letter to parents confirming that an incident involving two students ‘did not include punching’.
The letter stated that ‘a review of security camera footage confirmed a plan in place to help prevent such situations on the bus was not followed.’
The full letter can be found below.
