Tooele County School District fired a substitute bus driver after two students remained aboard a bus that returned to the district transportation yard instead of dropping them at Canyon Middle School, according to the district's account reported by KUTV and School Transportation News.
What the district said happened
The incident occurred Aug. 24 after the substitute, who had several years of school-bus-driving experience, failed to complete the required check confirming that students had left the vehicle before it returned to the garage. Transportation employees later located both students at the depot, west of Salt Lake City. The boys had been in direct sunlight for nearly 10 minutes, and video showed 7-year-old Winston Prawitt striking the bus windows, according to the KUTV report.
The district said it fired the driver and reviewed bus-clearing procedures with its drivers. On Sept. 8, the district’s assistant superintendent and transportation director presented possible child-check improvements to the Tooele County Board of Education, according to KUTV.
Family seeks more surveillance footage
The Prawitt family has been allowed to see only part of the surveillance recording, which has no audio, according to the reports. District officials said the footage includes multiple students and that any further access must comply with student-privacy requirements. The family has said it would accept a redacted version while seeking a fuller record of Winston’s time on the bus.
Winston has level two autism and was nonverbal until nearly age 5, his parents told KUTV. They said his disability may make it difficult for him to provide a detailed account and that he has experienced nightmares and anxiety since the incident.
Proposed child-check requirement
The Prawitts are urging state leaders to consider what they call Winston's Law. Their proposal would require a driver to walk to the rear of the bus and activate a control after each route, with an alarm intended to signal that the inspection was not completed. KUTV described the proposal; the supplied material does not identify it as an independently reported legislative measure.
Utah already requires end-of-route inspections
Utah law already requires local education agencies to adopt written policies requiring drivers to inspect the entire bus after each route and providing discipline for failures to do so. Gov. Spencer Cox signed House Bill 369 in March 2021, following an earlier incident in which a Salt Lake City preschooler was left on a bus for more than two hours, according to School Transportation News. The same report said the end-of-route check was also included in driver training and federal transportation guidance.
Utah's existing requirements
Utah State Board of Education rule R277-601 says an end-of-route inspection must include stopping and parking the bus and ensuring that every student has exited; when possible, the inspection should be completed at each school site, according to the Utah State Board of Education. The Utah Legislature's bill record says House Bill 369, titled School Bus Inspection Amendments, was signed on March 17, 2021, and took effect on May 5, 2021, according to the Utah Legislature.
