Bus referrals at school central to JCPS drivers' complaints on pace for recent high

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Students at Waller-Williams Environmental School make up 0.1% of the overall enrollment at Jefferson County Public Schools but have been reported for bus-related misbehavior more times than all but one school in the district so far this school year, data obtained by WDRB News show.

JCPS bus drivers and monitors in charge of transporting students from the school, which is for students with severe emotional or behavioral special needs, have expressed their frustrations with how they've been treated on Waller-Williams routes.

Bus drivers and monitors who spoke to WDRB News say Waller-Williams students need to face stricter discipline to know that their actions have consequences.

"There are no repercussions when these kids do things," Tawana Gurley, a bus monitor on the Waller-Williams run for more than two years, said in a recent interview. "Waller, to me, thinks it’s funny."

"They’re abhorrent," she continued, referring to Waller-Williams students. "They’re belligerent. They have no respect whatsoever for adults."

JCPS has scheduled a meeting Monday to discuss the concerns of Waller-Williams bus drivers and monitors.

"We are in the process of reviewing the best ways to support students and bus drivers and are exploring several different options that could be implemented soon," JCPS Communications Director Renee Murphy said in an email to WDRB News.

Records obtained by WDRB News show that students at Waller-Williams, a school of 133 students this year, have been referred for bus-related misbehavior 359 times in the first 69 days of the 2019-20 school year. That’s 4.1% of the 8,670 bus-related referrals reported by JCPS so far this school year.

Bus drivers and monitors who spoke to WDRB News said they've referred students for things like fighting or standing while the bus is moving. They say Waller-Williams students have hit and spat at them, and John Stovall, head of the union for JCPS transportation workers, has said "violent, out-of-control behavior" by students from the school puts his drivers at risk.

Stovall has called for more bus monitors to be hired and assigned to Waller-Williams routes.

Only Stuart Academy, a school of 811 seventh- and eighth-grade students, had more bus-related referrals than Waller-Williams so far this year with 464.

Waller-Williams students are on pace to set a new recent high in the number of bus referrals associated with the school. If the current year's rate holds, Waller-Williams students will be involved in 911 bus referrals in 2019-20.

The school has constantly been among those with the most bus referrals in JCPS:

545 in 2018-19 (fifth most)
724 in 2017-18 (third most)
413 in 2016-17 (12th most)
678 in 2015-16 (third most)

That would be the most in the four prior school years, topping the 724 bus-related referrals in 2017-18. WDRB News requested disciplinary referrals at JCPS since the 2015-16 school year.

Pam Powell, a JCPS bus driver with more than 20 years' experience, said she goes home from her Waller-Williams route so stressed "that I’m sick to my stomach."

"It’s not fair that we all have to deal with that every day," she told WDRB News. "... They’re going to have to pull us out and let their parents start taking them until something is done where we feel safe on the bus."

Other schools with high numbers of bus referrals through the first 69 days of the 2019-20 school year are:

Carrithers Middle (324)
Westport Middle (301)
Dixie Elementary (234)
Robert Frost Sixth-Grade Academy (211)
Shelby Traditional Academy (188)
Thomas Jefferson Middle (155)
Breckinridge-Franklin Elementary (148)
Ramsey Middle (146)

Data provided by the district in response to an open records request show that all but eight of the Waller-Williams bus incidents involved students with special needs.

Most of the Waller-Williams students referred for bus-related misbehavior were poor, black and male. JCPS records show that 82.7% were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 78.3% were male and 75.8% were black.

The rate of poor Waller-Williams youth referred for misbehavior on the bus is lower than the district's overall numbers so far this year, but the school's rates of black and male students involved in bus-related incidents is higher. Of the 8,670 bus referrals at JCPS so far this year, 85.6% of students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 70.6% were male and 70.6% were black.

The high rate of Waller-Williams students involved in bus incidents comes as the school itself is on pace to make a dramatic improvement in the number of student referrals this year, according to JCPS data, which separated bus and school referrals.

Through the first 69 days of 2019-20, school employees have referred students for misbehavior 742 times.

If that rate continues, that will equal 1,882 referrals for the year, nearly 2,000 fewer than the 2018-19 school year when Waller-Williams students were reported for disciplinary issues 3,795 times.

Such a development would reverse a recent steady climb of behavior referrals at Waller-Williams since the 2015-16 school year, when students were reported for misbehavior 1,866 times.

Referrals from the school increased to 2,577 in 2016-17 and 2,626 in 2017-18, according to district data.

As with bus referrals, the vast majority of students reported for misbehavior have special needs. All but 41 of the 742 school referrals so far this year involved students identified for Exceptional Child Education.

In-school disciplinary referrals at Waller-Williams have also largely been taken against students who are poor, black and male. Of the 742 referrals in the first 69 days of the school year, 76.1% were against students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, 72.9% were against black students and 83.6% were against males.

Similarly, districtwide data show that poor, black and male students were referred for disciplinary action at high rates so far in 2019-20.

Students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch make up 80.7% of the 65,978 disciplinary referrals at JCPS so far this school year. Black students are 64.7% of that total while males account for 66%, according to district data.

JCPS won’t stray far from recent referral totals if current trends hold.

The district is on pace to write 21,989 bus referrals this year, slightly lower than last year's total of 22,116.

But it's set to issue 167,336 in-school referrals this year, up a bit from the 165,750 issued in 2018-19.

JCPS set recent highs in both bus and school behavior referrals in 2016-17 with 24,075 and 172,371, respectively.

JCPS schools with the highest number of referrals through the first 69 days of 2019-20 are: