Why is it dangerous to ride school buses in New York?

New York officials have approved an arsenal of school bus drivers for the city, bypassing the required signature of a retired detective whose job is to study the backgrounds of these applicants. So New York received more than 100 drivers who will transport children to and from school. Many of them can be very dubious individuals with troubled histories.

Фото: Depositphotos

The fraudulent scheme led to the fact that many drivers who have not passed the test, go on children's flights, having behind the soul drives to the police for illegal behavior, minor and major offenses, writes NY Daily News.

This scandal with the signature literally comes on the heels of an exclusive news service investigation published two days ago, which mentions that six drivers were allowed to work, despite accusations of drunk driving, domestic violence and using a hidden video camera to illegally film a young woman in soul

“This is fraud,” said Eric Reynolds, an investigator whose name appeared on official documents without his knowledge or approval. “They do this with the specific intention of hiring people who shouldn't be working here. They know that I will not approve of them based on the facts and circumstances of the crimes for which they were convicted.”

Reynolds' job is to thoroughly vet the backgrounds of drivers from different bus companies before approving them to work with children. Officials said the official in charge of transporting schoolchildren, one Bibi Insanally, was supposed to forward the applications to him and feed back his decisions to the bus companies.

Reynolds argues that companies regularly send applicants with serious convictions.

“They sent me two who committed murders, and there were those who were shooters, gun owners or drug dealers who were accused of financial fraud,” he explained. “There was a guy who stole a 20-ton truck from the MTA. And another one ended up with eight convictions for misappropriation of other people’s personal data.”

According to data on Tuesday, it was not clear whether at least one driver with a criminal record was approved behind Reynolds. But instead of thanking Reynolds for his work in protecting children, transport officials, including security director Paul Weidig and contract manager Everett Parker, have repeatedly complained about his refusal to accept potential drivers.

The contracting unit pressured investigators to lower their standards.

“They resisted the decisions, asking why so few drivers were getting approved,” said a source familiar with the situation. “The pressure came from the bus companies because the companies need a huge number of drivers.”

Officials responsible for transporting children even complained when Reynolds refused a person with a criminal conviction for sexual abuse of an 13-year-old girl.

“When I turned him down, they argued with me,” Reynolds says. I said, “There will be no discussion. He's going to transport 13-year-old girls. Why might you think this was a good idea? Overall, I did not expect this kind of reaction when pointing out the problem.”

Фото: Depositphotos

Workarounds were identified in April, when Reynolds stopped sending documents for approval. In late August, he learned that Insanally had excluded him from the chain and secretly claimed the drivers on his own. Reynolds believes that this was done at the direction of the chiefs of transport, including Veydig and Parker.

The approval letters included the former police officer's electronic signature and email address, appearing to come from him even though he had nothing to do with the process. For example, on September 5, eight official statements with Reynolds' forged signature were issued without his participation or knowledge. Five more were "approved" on August 28. The same thing happened in May, June and July, the investigator said.

DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot argues that there are rules that allow clerical staff to send suppliers a letter-form with information.

“We take the hiring process seriously and these allegations will be investigated,” Barbot said. “We are also updating the process to ensure this does not happen in the future.”

Former DOE general counsel David Bloomfield said that if this is true, the charges could rise to the level of criminal fraud.

“Falsification of official documents is a serious issue,” said Bloomfield, who now teaches at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. “By forging a name, they are crossing the line.” And that causes criminal problems.”

Phillip Banks, a retired NYPD department manager, added: “This certainly requires an investigation if done without his knowledge. If they did this, wanting to approve drivers that they already knew, Reynolds would not agree, and that would lead to serious legal problems. ”

Now it is impossible to unilaterally annul his excommunication from the position, therefore the specialist may remain without work in the coming months. According to Bloomfield, this is a DOE miscalculation.

Reynolds believes that the situation has a simple solution: drivers must check the “background” of the drivers by a separate law enforcement agency.

“This situation is exactly why DOE should not be involved,” he said.

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