Parents React to Bus Driver's DWI Arrest

Early this morning, a Windham Middle School bus driver was charged with driving while intoxicated during her morning route.

Kimberly Hooley, 50, of Londonderry was arrested in the parking lot of the school after her driving was described as "erratic" by several parents and students on the bus.

One of those parents was Jenn Cavers, whose son Michael was on that bus this morning. Cavers was in the parking lot of the school to pick her son up this afternoon, which she plans on doing for the foreseeable future.

"I got calls and emails from other parents whose children were on the bus expressing their concern about seeing the bus driver drive up on the lawn and drive down the wrong side of the road and almost hit a child," said Cavers.

According to Cavers, parents of children on the bus knew something was wrong right away.

"Immediately, before the school was alerted or the police, there was concern amongst the parents," said Cavers. "It was observed by several parents that something was just not right with this woman."

Cavers plans on driving her son to school until there is more clarification on what will be done to ensure a repeat incident doesn't occur. She also said that the guidance counselor at the school met with the students who were on the bus today to talk about the incident, but didn't have any details of the discussion.

Also in the queue to pick his children up was Troy Heath, who has a seventh-grader and a fourth-grader in the school system. He normally picks up his children, but does allow his daughter to take the bus to school. He will not change that routine at all.

"We fortunately have a bus driver that we know and have had her for years," said Heath. "I trust her."

Heath did explain how he would react had his children been on that bus.

"I'd want some assurance from the school district or whoever is responsible for hiring the drivers that these people are screened better," said Heath. "Obviously this person has a real problem."

Jim Kauhl hasn't allowed his children on the bus for nearly eight years. He is a parent of a child at the middle school as well as a high-schooler. He disagreed with the harsh way the bus drivers would discipline the kids and make their own rules for each bus.

"We decided as parents it's best for us to pick up and drop off," said Kauhl. "This puts the nail on the coffin for me. This proves my point."

Kauhl did mention that there has been a vast reduction in parents picking up their children from the school.

"If you look at this line here this year versus last year, it has dropped over 50 percent," said Kauhl.

Kim Marotta also takes Kaul's approach, citing that she has had too many problems in the past. It's all about her children's safety.

I know a lot of people can't, but this validates why I pick up my children and drive them to school everyday," said Marotta.

Carmen Vallejo was also waiting in line for her son, who is in seventh grade, to get out of his last class. She questioned if all of the query checks are being done.

"Are they really looking into the past history and asking people if they have a drug history or an alcohol history?," said Vallejo. "If they need help can they come and say I need help and have a problem without being afraid of losing their job?"

Vallejo always picks her son up, the worry being that buses are simply unsafe environments for many reasons.

"You worry about your child being bullied on the bus, you worry that there's no seatbelt on the bus and now you've got to worry that there's something wrong with the bus driver," said Vallejo. "You always hope that the bus driver is going to be the responsible person. If they're not responsible and something bad happens they're the only adult. It's just little kids on the bus. They're all alone."