校车司机背景调查 为学生安全提供重要保护。它们也是防止学区因雇用承包商提供学生交通服务而承担昂贵法律责任的关键保障。审查准校车司机的 犯罪历史、 性犯罪者身份、 驾驶记录违规、 所需执照以及 吸毒或酗酒 可以挽救生命、保护学生免受性虐待和其他危险、防止学区的诉讼或公共关系灾难等等。更多的。
尽管校车司机背景调查的重要性显而易见，但头条新闻继续引起对未能彻底审查司机的学区和巴士公司的关注。最近的一个例子来自新泽西州，总检察长办公室指控一家校车公司的老板在其公司雇用前罪犯和无牌司机。
故事不是从校车事件开始，而是从政治调查开始。新泽西州总检察长正在调查帕特森市的政治不当行为，两名市议员被指控与最近一次选举的邮寄选票有关的选民欺诈。调查发现了另一位帕特森议员 Shahin Khalique 和他的兄弟 Shelim 之间的关系，Shelim 拥有一家名为 A-1 Elegant Tours, LLC 的校车公司。A-1 在新泽西州作为东方之星运输公司运营。
在仔细阅读 A-1 人事档案时，总检察长办公室发现该公司多次雇用没有有效商业驾驶执照且没有为儿童运输背书的司机。A-1 雇用或以前雇用的一些司机有犯罪记录；一个是登记在案的性犯罪者。
新泽西州法律要求所有校车司机在每个新学年开始时接受背景调查、指纹识别和药物测试。新泽西州不允许有犯罪历史的个人驾驶校车。该州还要求每位校车司机持有有效的商业驾驶执照和新泽西州机动车辆委员会的“S”背书。额外的认可证明司机已经在校车的车轮后面进行了道路测试，并具有安全和称职驾驶公共汽车的能力。
总检察长办公室表示，A-1 不仅没有对校车司机进行背景调查，而且还故意这样做，然后从它提供运输服务的州和学区掩盖了它。
总检察长的报告指出，A-1“为了获得合同而对其员工和设备撒谎”，允许“不合格的司机、被定罪的重罪犯和受到影响的人每天驾驶和监督年幼的孩子，这些车辆经常是不安全的车辆。” 两名 A-1 司机因吸毒经营校车而面临指控。其中一个人在高空驾驶时撞毁了一辆载有有特殊需要的学生的公共汽车。
据称，A-1 谎称哪些司机会在特定路线上行驶，以防止其不当行为被发现，并告诉公交车司机晚上将公交车带回家，以避免汽车委员会的检查。该委员会在 2018 年对 A-1 及其巴士司机发出了 22 次传票，原因包括从吊销执照到无效的 S 背书等问题，并在突击检查发现严重的安全违规后最终扣押了 A-1 的巴士。
A-1 未能诚实经营，没有彻底审查其司机，并避免使用巴士司机背景调查来雇用更安全、更合格的司机。A-1 的所有者 Khalique 和公司经理 Henry Rhodes 现在面临一系列指控，包括共谋、盗窃、篡改公共记录以及公司官员的不当行为。
在 GOOHO.CN，我们将帮助学区和校车公司 根据所有州和地方法律对其司机进行筛查。今天联系我们，了解更多信息。
provide vital protection for student safety. They are also a key safeguard against costly legal liability for school districts regarding the contractors they hire to provide student transportation services. Vetting prospective school bus drivers for criminal history, sex offender status, driving record infractions, required licensing, and drug or alcohol use can save lives, protect students from sexual abuse and other dangers, prevent lawsuits or public relations disasters for school districts, and much more.
Despite the clear importance of school bus driver background checks, headlines continue to draw attention to school districts and bus companies that fail to vet their drivers thoroughly. A recent example comes out of New Jersey, where the Attorney General’s Office has charged the owner of a school bus company with hiring both ex-criminal offenders and unlicensed drivers at his business.
The story begins not with a school bus incident, but with a political probe. New Jersey’s Attorney General was investigating political impropriety in the city of Paterson, where two city councilmen were accused of voter fraud related to mail-in ballots for a recent election. The investigation uncovered ties between another Paterson councilman, Shahin Khalique, and his brother, Shelim, who owns a school bus company called A-1 Elegant Tours, LLC. A-1 operates in New Jersey as Eastern Star Transportation.
In perusing A-1 personnel files, the Attorney General’s Office found that the company had repeatedly hired drivers with no valid commercial driver’s licenses and no endorsements to transportation children. Some of the drivers employed or previously hired by A-1 had criminal records; one was a registered sex offender.
New Jersey state law requires all school bus drivers to undergo background checks, fingerprinting, and drug testing at the beginning of each new academic year. Individuals with criminal histories are not permitted to drive school buses in New Jersey. The state also requires every school bus driver to hold both a valid commercial driver’s license and an “S” endorsement from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. The extra endorsement certifies that the driver has been road-tested behind the wheel of a school bus and has a proven ability to drive a bus safely and competently.
The Attorney General’s Office says that A-1 not only failed to conduct school bus driver background checks, but did so willfully and then covered it up from the state and the school districts for which it provided transportation services.
The Attorney General’s report states that A-1 “lied about its employees and equipment to secure contracts,” allowing “unqualified drivers, convicted felons, and those under the influence drive and supervise young children each day in what were frequently unsafe vehicles.” Two A-1 drivers are facing charges for operating school buses under the influence of drugs. One of them, driving while high, crashed a bus carrying students with special needs.
A-1 allegedly lied about which drivers would be covering specific routes to keep its wrongdoing under the radar and told bus drivers to take their buses home at night to avoid Motor Vehicle Commission inspections. The commission issued 22 citations of A-1 and its bus drivers in 2018 for issues ranging from suspended licenses to invalid S endorsements and ultimately impounded A-1’s buses after surprise inspections identified severe safety violations.
A-1 failed to operate honestly, did not vet its drivers thoroughly, and avoided the use of bus driver background checks to hire safer, more qualified drivers. Khalique, A-1’s owner, and Henry Rhodes, the company’s manager, are now facing a range of charges including conspiracy, theft, tampering with public records, and misconduct by a corporate official.
At backgroundchecks.com, we are here to help school districts and school bus companies screen their drivers in accordance with all state and local laws. Contact us today to learn more.
