Baltimore County school officials are investigating allegations that a substitute bus driver used racial epithets to describe a busload of unruly Pikesville Middle School students when she refused to take them home last week and returned her bus to the school.
The substitute driver, Theresa Beggs, 55, denied making the comments. But the bus ride has ignited a controversy at the school, where about a dozen concerned parents attended a PTA meeting to address the issue last night.
At the meeting, it was also alleged that the bus was driven with the emergency door open for about a minute. Shelton Tate, the father of one of the students on the bus, said he had spoken to many of the children in the neighborhood and was concerned about both the racial remark and the unsafe conditions.
On Friday, according to students and school officials, Ms. Beggs picked up 48 students, virtually all black, from the school in the 7700 block of Seven Mile Lane, and drove toward their Lochearn-area homes. About a third of the school's enrollment of 1,000 is nonwhite.
During the ride, some of the students threw paper at Ms. Beggs, who was filling in and is normally a secretary at Woodlawn Motor Coach, a contractor that supplements the county's bus fleet. She became exasperated.
Rita Tate, a 12-year-old seventh-grader who was on the bus, said Ms. Beggs stopped when she saw a radio-equipped bus on the other side of the road, opened the window and told the other driver that "she was taking all of us [racial epithet] back to school." After the meeting last night, several other students who were on the bus said the same, offering concurring details.
Ms. Beggs said yesterday that she never used an epithet. She said she warned the students that if they didn't stop hitting her with paper balls, she would take them back to school. When the situation did not improve, she said, she headed back.
"Then they started chanting and calling me [profane] names."
She also said the door was opened after the bus was moving.
"Somebody unlatched the door. I had to slow down gradually. I couldn't jam on the brakes, because someone could have fallen out," said Ms. Beggs.
Several students and Mr. Tate said the students were detained in the cafeteria for about an hour and were not allowed to make phone calls or use the bathroom.
Dr. O'Melia denied that students were prohibited from leaving the room and were told they could not walk home without parental permission. She also said she later apologized to Mr. Tate.
On Monday morning, Ms. Glazer notified Rita Fromm, manager of the school system's transportation department, of the students' allegations. The department is in charge of bus drivers.
"I don't want to dismiss this situation, but I don't want to accuse anyone . . . really, it's up to the transportation department to see if anything was done inappropriately," the principal said during an interview in her office yesterday. "If it's true . . . I don't think it's appropriate.
"Whatever race or religion, they should not be slandered. But again, I don't know if in fact she said it." After the meeting, Ms. Glazer added that she does not want Ms. Beggs to drive the students again.
Ms. Fromm said she will investigate further but added, "I don't know that we can ever get the stories to match." According to Dr. O'Melia, all students on the bus last Friday are being interviewed by school officials, and Ms. Fromm said she would again interview Ms. Beggs.