- 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 more than 30 years before COVID-19 took a toll on his business and forced him to sell.
For the past two years, Kowalski worked as a school bus driver for DeWitt Public Schools, saying the students he drove everyday gave him life.
Kowalski's two-year stint as a bus driver ended on February 28 after he resigned following an incident the day before.
"It just wasn't a good situation and it was avoidable," Kowalski said.
The situation Kowalski told me about Monday night, just minutes before the district's school board meeting, happened on February 27.
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Kowalski says a fourth-grade student with special needs was riding the bus that day when a Kindergarten-aged student went up to Kowalski saying that the older student hit him.
"[The student] had a red mark on his head and he had been crying saying he'd been hit," Kowalski said. "I turned around and other students were saying that he had been hit in the face."
Kowalski says he had asked aides outside of the bus to come and remove the student.
"The aides got on the bus, the student was yelling [profanities], screaming, kicking," Kowalski said. "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."
Kowalski said the incident led to a 30-minute delay in drop offs while also shaking up some of the students.
"I saw the fear in kids. I had little girls crying," Kowalski said. "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."
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There were around 65 students riding the bus that day and Kowalski says two of them have special needs.
Kowalski blames the school district for not doing enough to protect the students 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," Kowalski said.
The next day, Kowalski says he met with the district's transportation director, George Gibson, to discuss the situation. Kowalski says they reviewed security camera footage of the incident.
"The videotape was black. You couldn't see anything on that tape," Kowalski said.
Gibson allegedly asked Kowalski why he didn't get off of 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," Kowalski said. "I had help right outside the door that was supposed to take care of him: his aides."
Kowalski says he warned the school district since January to remove the student in question from the bus in order to foster a safer environment for other students.
"[I told Gibson] this is on you. It's not on the child. It's not on me. It's on you or your boss or whoever chose to allow this student to stay on this bus all these months," Kowalski said.
Kowalski said he returned to the district last Friday for a meeting with the school's human resource director. Superintendent Kevin Robydek was at that meeting, though Kowalski didn't know he'd attend.
Kowalski requested to record the meeting, but was denied. Kowalski said the meeting ended shortly after.
"I'm not going to have a 'he-said-she-said' two-on-one," Kowalski said.
Kowalski says he's not worried about getting his job back. One neighbor, Katie Gervasi, told me Kowalski had become a big influence on her son.
"[My son] actually decided that he wanted to become a bus driver just like Mr. K," Gervasi said.
But Gervasi says Kowalski's loss 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," Gervasi said.
Eleven days after the incident occurred, DPS released a letter to parents confirming that an incident occurred between two students that 'did not include punching'.
The letter said 'a review of security camera footage confirmed a plan in place to help prevent such situations on the bus was not followed.'
The district declined an on-camera interview and referred to the letter it sent to parents which can be found below.
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