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Watch: Indiana bus driver arrested after letting 11 year old kids drive bus

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Joandrea Dehaven McAtee
Pictured, Indiana school bus driver, Joandrea Dehaven McAtee.
Joandrea Dehaven McAtee
Pictured, Indiana school bus driver, Joandrea Dehaven McAtee.

Joandrea Dehaven McAtee – Indiana school bus driver fired after letting Boone Grove High School school children drive bus and the incident being filmed. 

An Indiana school bus driver has ben arrested after allowing children as young as eleven years old drive the bus – all the while as fellow students filmed the interlude.

ABC News reported Joandrea Dehaven McAtee, 27 being detained on Friday and charged with felony neglect of a dependent. 

Police claimed McAtee allowing three students, aged, 11, 13 and 17, to drive the school bus for short distances Thursday in rural Valparaiso, Indiana.

Indiana state law allows for an individual being charged with neglect of a dependent if a decision ‘places the dependent in a situation that endangers the dependent’s life or health’.

Authorities say during the bus driving episode, there were other students on board, some of whom recorded the incident. (Do you suppose?).

‘First, what you gotta do, is put your foot on the brake,’ McAtee, is heard saying in one video.

The student who filmed the video said it was a middle schooler who was driving.

Joandrea Dehaven McAtee employer, First Student releases statement: 

WPTV reported notice of the ‘incident’ after a parent complaining to a school resource officer at Boone Grove High School. A follow up investigation led to school officials ‘quickly been able to substantiate claims’. 

McAtee was immediately fired by First Student, the company which operates buses in Porter Township, after the video and allegations surfacing.

Told First Student in a released statement: ‘We are incredibly disappointed by the actions of our former driver.

‘There is nothing more important than the safety of the students we transport.

‘Behavior such as this is completely unacceptable and totally at odds with what we stand for as a company.

‘The driver has been terminated. We have a zero-tolerance policy for employees whose actions may harm or put others at risk’.  

Court records show McAtee previously being arrested for speeding in her own vehicle in New Chicago, Indiana in February 2017 for driving 54 mph in a 35 mph zone.

She was found guilty and paid the resulting fine.

Not immediately clear was how long McAtee had been driving school buses for and whether her employer, First Student were aware of the driver’s previous driving infractions (or at least ought to have been) ?

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