Parents Meet With DC Schools Chancellor After Bus Driver's DWI Crash

The chancellor of D.C. Public Schools met for over an hour Wednesday night with parents from a Northwest elementary school whose kindergartners were on a charter bus that crashed coming back from Fairfax County last week.

The bus driver was arrested and charged with DWI, and some parents told News4 that they left the meeting with more questions than answers. 

“It was a matter of time before something went wrong, and thank God nothing worse happened,” one father, Zach Thrun, said. 

Parents from Ben Murch Elementary who were on the bus that crashed into a ditch coming back from a pumpkin patch in Chantilly, Virginia, said they expressed concerns about oversight to the school system’s Chancellor Lewis Ferebee.

They also asked questions about how driver Troy Reynolds was driving the Rome Charters bus despite a previous DUI arrest in the Commonwealth, and why he did not have the type of commercial driver’s license required to drive a bus.

“We come to a meeting with the chancellor who walks around and talks about not much and is asked direct basic questions that anybody in an official capacity should be able to answer, like, ‘Are there background checks for the bus driver?’” parent Phil Simon said. 

Parents said they pushed the chancellor for more accountability, for proof the school system checks the records of charter drivers and a pledge to do so on a regular basis.

“I asked whether there were background checks for the drivers and I was told no, and Chancellor Ferebee said that they were looking into that, but it didn’t seem like that was a suggestion that he took very seriously,” a mother, Amy Lishinsky, said. 

They also praised the efforts of teachers and staff on the bus that day.

“The teachers were heroes, and the school has been great,” Lishinsky added.  

The bus driver, Troy Reynolds, remains jailed until his next court appearance.