A rear-facing camera is shown on a school bus during a Clark County School District news conference on school safety at Durango High School Thursday, July 28, 2022. The bus has five cameras on the outside and four in the inside.
Published Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022 | 12:25 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022 | 1:18 p.m.
Clark County School District Police are investigating reported attacks on two school bus drivers, the district said today.
Police this morning received a report of an assault on a driver near the intersection of Tonopah and Vegas drives in the central valley, the district said.
Police also received a report of an assault on a driver Wednesday evening near Boulder Highway and Russel Road that involved several adults, the district said.
Further details about the incidents or the conditions of the drivers were not immediately released.
Police have identified persons of interest in both cases, but no arrests have been made, the district said.
"I condemn the violent attack on our bus drivers in the strongest terms," Superintendent Jesus Jara said in a statement. "As I have said repeatedly, the Clark County School District will not tolerate attacks on our staff or students by anyone. Once this investigation concludes, these cases will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The reported assaults come amid infusions of both security upgrades and new drivers in the chronically understaffed driver corps.
The district unveiled new, 360-degree surveillance cameras inside and out on hundreds of its buses last month. CCSD resumed classes last week with new cameras in about 60% of its 1,923-bus fleet, with the rest to be installed by the beginning of the second semester.
The fleet was already fully outfitted with cameras, but the new and improved, Wi-Fi-connected cameras – which will cost about $6 million, covered by bond funds – will allow more efficient video storage and live, real-time monitoring capabilities. Footage may be used to keep tabs on rider and driver behavior and to help investigate traffic incidents.
The district started the year about 80 drivers below full staffing, but that’s a smaller gap than the 250-driver shortfall it faced earlier this year. Some buses came hours late, if at all, and the district eliminated some high school routes and gave students city bus passes, cut sports busing and realigned school start and dismissal times to more efficiently use drivers. CCSD also responded to its staffing woes by increasing bus driver wages by more than 40
%, from $15.36 to $19.98 per hour to $21.67 to $29.04 per hour, on top of recruitment and retention bonuses.
The district would be fully staffed with about 1,500 drivers.
