"Councillor complains to bus company wants driver out of Six Nations"

By Lynda Powless /Editor SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND RIVER TERRITORY - A Brantford, Ontario bus company has removed one of their drivers from driving all school buses after Six Nations parents flooded Facebook Wednesday with complaints of speeding, slamming on of brakes and terrorizing children prompting Six Nations Councillor Helen Miller to contact the company.

The issue came to a crisis after parents of students at Gawenioo School met their children at their home driveways Tuesday coming off the bus drenched in sweat, some crying, suffering breathing attacks and fearful, telling their parents the "driver tried to kill us."

Parents said the driver had children, as young as four, in the bus as he was driving, with windows up, Tuesday and turned the bus heat on even though the outside temperatures had hit 30 degrees Celsius. Parents said he then played the song 'One little, two little, three little Indians," as their children sat in soaring temperatures as a form of punishment for children telling him he had missed their driveway.

Six Nations Councillor Helen Miller told the company the driver "has to be removed. Parents are concerned. He speeding, putting children's lives at risk by slamming on brakes and terrorizing them with these things he is doing."

Brantford Sharp Bus Lines vice president John Prendergast told Turtle Island News Thursday "the driver is no longer going to be driving. He is under investigation and we have removed him not only from driving roads at Six Nations but all driving pending the outcome of our investigation."

He said he was not familiar with the individual complaints, saying they would have come to the manager, but he had spoken with Councillor Helen Miller. "I assured the councillor he would be removed from driving immediately and an investigation launched."

Councillor Miller told Turtle Island News Thursday, "it's good news. The driver is gone. He won't be driving in our community anymore."

Miller, after being contacted by Turtle Island News and reading parent's Facebook complaints decided not to attend a GREAT meeting she was scheduled to attend Thursday. "Oh my God, I want to look into this immediately. We can't have anyone treating our kids like this," she said on learning of the complaints.

The Facebook complaints began after parent Paula Hill greeted her children Tuesday from the bus and found them red in the face, sweating, frightened and her daughter, who suffers from asthma, was having difficulty breathing.

Paula Hill contacted the bus company but got no response. She said she sent an email to Elected Chief Ava Hill Tuesday, but got no response and her former husband contacted Six Nations Police but again, no response.

So she took to Facebook to warn other parents.

"I don't know if this is overkill to share this story, but I'm genuinely concerned about the safety of our children if I do not put it out there publicly. Please read this if you are a parent of a child at Six Nations riding a Sharp Bus Lines bus.

"Since the beginning of this school year, my children have expressed concerns about their safety while riding the school bus. Their comments were easily dismissed by me initially. It sounded to me like the driver was just a crotchety old man and my advice to my children was to just deal with it. They also expressed concerns about how fast he drove -- that he tended to slam on the brakes and often slid past his destination. They complained that this prolonged the bus ride, as the bus driver then had to back up in order to get the children closer to their laneway. I dismissed this complaint, saying "well it's a new school year and he just needs to get used to his route." They complained about the harsh, abusive way he spoke to the children. Again I dismissed it. But yesterday, my daughter sent me panicked text messages saying that it was so hot on the bus she felt like she was going to die. It was so hot in the bus that she could not breathe and the heat was triggering an asthma attack. She said that the bus driver would not allow any of the kids to put their windows down -- that the bus driver stated that "the windows are going to stay up until you all learn to follow the rules." As I received the texts from my daughter, I looked at the outdoor thermometer and it said that the current temperature outside was 30C. I can only imagine how hot it was inside the cramped quarters of that metal bus. The bus monitor expressed fear for the safety of the children, and eventually put her window down -- telling the bus driver that he did not have the right to jeopardize the children's safety or health -- that it was unsafe to have the children riding in such unbearable heat. The bus driver scolded her, stating something to the effect that she is to listen to him -- that he's "the one in control here." As further retaliation, the bus driver then turned the heat on! There were 3 children that were sitting in seats directly above the heaters, one of which was my son. My son said that the heat on his legs became unbearably hot. One of the other children called her mother. The kids honestly feared for their safety at this point."

Hill said those text messages frightened her and she was extremely concerned for her children.

"It sounded like they were held hostage by a lunatic."

She said contacted her husband and they filed complaints with the school, with Sharps Bus Line, the Six Nations Police and Elected Chief Ava Hill. She said the school principal Linda Staats contacted the company as well.

She said was desperate.

"I'm just feeling desperate, I was worried that our children wouldn't make it home alive. We wrote emails and called the people that we hoped would intervene. We were supported by the school but I feel like Sharpe did the bare minimum to intervene."

She said her former husband has since boarded the bus to speak to the driver. On Wednesday she drove her children to school.

She said they were advised the bus driver will be changed to a different route. She said the bus company confirmed in the few weeks that school had been in, they had received numerous complaints about the driver. She said she was still concerned that this man would simply be pushed to another route at Six Nations.

"I am dismayed and disgusted that this guy will keep his job. I am fearful for the safety of other children in our community if this guy continues to drive bus on the territory. If these kids had been ANIMALS trapped in a vehicle with the windows up and heat blasting on them, the guy would have been in trouble... people would have been praised for busting the windows to protect the animals. Our children were equally vulnerable as passengers on a bus. But because it's just a bunch of little Injun kids, apparently Sharps Bus Lines doesn't give a rat's behind."

The children on the bus attend a Six Nations language school. "They are proud to be learning their own language and culture and then they get on the bus and he plays that song. "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians" it's offensive."

She warned parents to watch for a new bus driver on their route and to beware. "I know as parents you always protect your babies, but I just wanted to encourage you not to hesitate to complain if an issue arises. I'd just feel guilty if I heard another school went through the same things we've gone through in the last few weeks.

There had been other complaints to the company from parents. "He would insult our kids when he passed their stops he would scream at the kids. He drives like a maniac, misses stops and slams on the brakes. And he plays them music, he plays them 'One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians...," she said.

Councillor Helen Miller said she was shocked the man was getting away with that behaviour. "He could have killed one of our kids driving like that."

She wasn't alone.

Former Elected Chief Bill Montour said the man should have been run out

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