INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Indian River County School Board Tuesday night fired a school bus driver who was accused of texting while driving three times – two of those times while students were on-board.
The unanimous vote came at the request of Schools Superintendent Dr. Fran Adams after a random check of the bus’s camera on Jan. 6 found Viola Rhyant texting the day before.
Further review of the camera’s footage showed Rhyant texting while driving on Dec. 11 and 12, according to Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Bill Fritz.
Fritz told the School Board that Rhyant and the other bus drivers received training prior to the start of the 2014-15 school year that covered the prohibition of texting while driving. He also said he has documentation signed by Rhyant that she was aware such action would be cause for termination.
Harry Davis, president of the local Communications Workers of America union that represents bus drivers and other School District support staff, told the Board that the CWA agrees that Rhyant needed to be punished for her actions but not fired.
Instead, Davis said he’d rather have the option to retrain Rhyant and let her return to driving her school bus on the condition that she does it again, she’d be fired immediately.
“This is really troubling,” School Board member Claudia Jimenez said of Rhyant’s actions, explaining the driver not only endangered the students’ safety but also her own, as well as became a tremendous liability to the School District. She later added, “It’s so egregious.”
Fritz told the Board that camera footage showed at least three incidents, two of which while students were on-board. He described the texting as prolonged – more than 5 minutes. The footage, he added, also showed the driver maneuvering turns with her phone in her hand, and at times driving without any hands on the wheel.