Officials: School Bus Driver Charged After Allowing Student To Steal Traffic Cone
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AVELLA (KDKA) -- A school bus driver is off the job after he stopped in a construction zone and let a student off the bus to steal an orange cone.
"He had worked for us for a while, an exemplary employee up until this incident," Kyle Templin, the manager of the GG&C Bus Company, said of the driver.
But Templin says that spotless record for 54-year-old Michael Slider was tarnished over a traffic cone.
It all happened Friday, Sept. 15 around 11:30 a.m. Slider was transporting 31 Avella Area School District students from the Western Area Career and Technology Center to the high school.
As the bus traveled along Route 519, a 17-year-old female student asked Slider to stop the bus so she could steal a traffic cone in a construction zone.
The superintendent of the district, Cyril Walther, says, "The driver did stop the bus in a construction zone, the student got off the bus, took the cone, brought it back onto the bus and the driver brings that student and other students back to the high school."
Video from the bus shows exactly what happened and what was said.
Slider is heard saying, "Hopefully, they don't have a look at the cameras for a couple of weeks." According to the superintendent, videos are taped over after several days. Slider is then heard saying, "I have fun at this job."
At the high school, the 17-year-old girl was questioned by school police where the cone came from. According to the superintendent, she is being disciplined by the district and there's no word on whether she will face any criminal charges.
Slider is charged. He's facing 31 counts of reckless endangerment, theft and corruption of a minor.
According to the bus company, Slider has been suspended without pay, indefinitely, until the investigation is over. He has a preliminary hearing Nov. 7.
