Ax problem bus drivers

Some Utah school districts dropped the ball. Big time. According to a newly released legislative audit, they hired school bus drivers who have criminal convictions and serious driving violations such as driving under the influence.

It defies understanding how people convicted of such offenses could be hired to work with schoolchildren, let alone obtain or retain commercial drivers' licenses. Worse, five drivers were allowed to keep their jobs after being convicted of DUI, child abuse, assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child.

School districts owe students, parents and taxpayers better. The safety of students who rely on buses for transportation to school, field trips and activities must be the highest priority.

In a state that until recently has had a very low unemployment rate, school districts surely struggle to fill these jobs. Most drivers work a couple hours in the morning and a few more in the afternoon. Some pick up extra hours driving students on field trips or to games or other school activities.

Beyond that, driving a school bus can be highly stressful. Larger school buses can hold up to 84 passengers. It is a tremendous responsibility to deliver them safely to and from a destination, particularly during bad weather.

The vast majority of Utah school bus drivers comport themselves professionally and competently. Auditors reviewed personal driving records of 2,700 drivers in 36 of 40 school districts. The problem drivers are a very small group of drivers who should not be driving school buses.

The audit also reveals some embarrassingly poor human resource work on the part of some school districts. How they could hire bus drivers with these criminal convictions defies comprehension. How they could keep newly convicted drivers on the job is an outrage.

Here's the icing on the cake. Due to privacy laws, legislative auditors cannot specifically identify the employees. They did, however, tell school districts of their concerns. Those school districts will have to conduct criminal background checks of all drivers and terminate those who should not be working with children due to their criminal histories or serious driving violations — something they should have been doing all along.