Parent angry over bus driver chatting on cell

Hungry Horse News

Two states and 40 countries restrict the use of cell phones while driving, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Now School District 6 does, too.

A parent's letter complaining about a bus driver who was using a cell phone while driving prompted the district to adopt a rule against cell phone use.

Superintendent Michael Nicosia sent a memo last Friday stating that bus drivers couldn't use cell phones, even if they pulled to the side of the road. He said they can only be used for emergencies related to transportation.

In a letter to the Hungry Horse News and a subsequent interview, parent Amy Weggeland claimed bus driver, Carol Duval, was making personal cell phone calls while driving the school bus that brings her children home.

Duval claimed Weggeland wrote the letter because Duval had to reprimand Weggeland's children for bad behavior on the bus.

Nicosia said he didn't realize bus drivers were using cell phones, until he also got a letter from Weggeland.

"That letter drew my attention to the fact that we didn't have a policy," Nicosia said.

Nicosia said Brad Kenfield, the district's transportation director, had sent a letter to bus drivers earlier saying they must pull to the side of the rode before using cell phones. Nicosia said he amended that rule to be more restrictive.

"We formalized it to what I thought was acceptable," Nicosia said.

Nicosia said a bus driver that used a cell phone prior to the rule could not be punished.

"We would have no grounds to do that," he said.

Weggeland proposed serious punishments for bus drivers who make phone calls.

"It is my opinion that any bus driver caught using a cell phone is putting our children at risk and should be fired," Weggeland wrote in her letter. "At the very minimum the driver should be severely reprimanded."