Riding a school bus can be a scary experience for a kid.
That’s why it helps to have a bus driver who knows your name, greets you with a big smile, and who won’t let you get off the bus unless your mom or someone you know is waiting to take you home.
That was Duverste Destine.
And that’s why dozens of parents of current and former Rosemary Hills Elementary School students are up in arms about the removal of “Destine,” as he’s known to kids, from the Chevy Chase route he’s driven for 19 years.
“I can’t think of anyone else that I would rather trust with driving my kids to school,” says parent Donald Enright, whose first-grade daughter rode Destine’s bus.
About 50 families—plus 30 students from North Chevy Chase Elementary who used to ride his bus—have signed petitions urging MCPS officials to reinstate Destine. “He is a long-time fixture in our neighborhood and we are greatly saddened and concerned about his recent dismissal,” parent Amy Egan of Chevy Chase wrote in a letter accompanying the petition.
Destine was removed from his route after disclosing during an annual physical that he had suffered a seizure in 2008. MCPS spokesman Dana Tofig says officials can’t discuss personnel matters, but notes that federal regulations prohibit a person with a condition that may cause seizures or who takes anti-seizure medication from driving a school bus.
“If we are made aware of a condition that might disqualify a driver due to medical reason, then we would immediately remove the employee from driving while it is investigated,” he says.
“While we would take no joy in removing a good bus driver from the road, the safety of students comes first—always—and we will do what we think is right to assure that.”
Because Destine is an employee in good standing, he has been given another job as a bus attendant at a driver’s salary for now. But Destine just wants to go back to his route.
Destine says he was told he no longer could drive after he failed an annual Department of Transportation physical on March 2 due to a medical condition that dates back to 2008. Back then, Destine says he was driving his route when he felt seizure-like symptoms that caused him to bite his tongue. He says his doctor cleared him to drive at that time and gave him medication to stop future seizures. He never experienced the symptoms again and no longer takes the medication regularly.
When he filled out a form for this year’s recertification for his commercial driver’s license, he checked “yes” to a question asking whether he’d experienced a seizure in the past five years. He says he doesn’t remember that question on forms he’d filled out in previous years.
According to MCPS transportation officials, the DOT form hadn’t changed from previous years, Tofig says.
Destine has been meeting with school transportation officials, trying to get reinstated. He doesn’t understand why his 2008 medical release from his doctor no longer counts.
“I just don’t know what’s going on,” he says.
Meanwhile, Rosemary Hills parents console their kids, who wonder whether they’ll ever see Destine’s welcoming smile again. The feeling is mutual.
“I want to be with my children,” Destine says.
