Owners of the new BMW iX3 could get an electric shock while charging their EV.
The iX3 is also being recalled for possible issues with the side airbags.
One of the recalls impacts 4,843 iX3s globally, including 1,071 in Germany.
The second-generation BMW iX3 has been well received by most, marking a serious step up from its predecessor and delivering the kind of driving range usually reserved for Chinese EVs. But the launch hasn’t gone off without a hitch. Two recalls have already been issued for the electric SUV in Germany, and one of them sounds genuinely unpleasant.
The first recall landed at the end of May and covers 145 vehicles built between November 25, 2025, and February 20, 2026. According to BMW, these iX3 models carry an onboard charger, the component that converts AC power to DC, that may be faulty. The defect could leave the SUV’s body panels buzzing with electricity while the car is plugged in.
BMW says it isn’t aware of any injuries so far, but it admits owners could get a nasty shock if they touch the car at the wrong moment. The fix is straightforward enough, as the onboard chargers on affected models will be swapped out, whether or not they actually turn out to be defective. With high-voltage EVs, better safe than sorry. All told, the recall covers 145 cars worldwide, 28 of which are in Germany.
Dangerous Airbags
Then a few days later, on June 1, a second recall followed. This time, BMW says the side airbags may not have been bolted in to spec. The concern is twofold: the airbag might not deploy properly in a crash, and the gas generator could shift out of position and strike occupants.
The affected iX3s were built between December 18, 2025, and May 8, 2026. It’s the bigger of the two campaigns, covering 4,843 vehicles worldwide, including 1,071 in Germany. As with the charger issue, there are no known accidents or injuries tied to the airbag fault.
In this case, BMW says it will inspect the screws that hold the side airbags in place and, if necessary, resolve any issues.
Two of the most recognized and respected names in student transportation safety will be at STN EXPO West to share their expertise with conference attendees.
Industry veterans Richard “Dick” Fischer and Pete Baxter will present a half-day seminar “The Best of the Dick and Pete Show” on Wednesday, July 15. This in-depth session will give attendees invaluable education from two National Association of Pupil Transportation Hall of Fame inductees on safety leadership, organizational learning and risk governance in student transportation.
In this seminar, STN EXPO West attendees will receive a comprehensive student transportation safety training that will dive into real-life school bus safety cases, including Danger Zone safety incidents and the “Titanic tragedy,” a 2016 incident in England, where a school bus carrying 26 children got stuck in deep floodwaters, and reveal the lessons learned. Fischer and Baxter will highlight the dangerous pitfalls of overconfidence, ignoring warning signs or a lack of preparedness or emergency training.
The message of the training will contain an overall theme of continuous improvement through the fostering of a strong safety culture. Attendees will be given safety training modules designed to give student transportation leaders what they need to know to implement safe practices, communication, accountability all to protect every child and school bus driver on every bus ride.
Fischer has spent over six decades championing school bus safety as a school district transportation director, school-bus safety trainer and consultant. He successfully petitioned President Richard Nixon in 1969 to proclaim the first School Bus Safety Week. Even following his official retirement announcement in 2013, he has continued to present training, advocate for the industry, and become involved in national safety discussions.
Baxter is a former state director of student transportation at the Indiana Department of Education and past-president of both the National Association for Pupil Transportation and the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, one of only two industry professionals to hold both offices.
Both Fischer and Baxter have served as expert witnesses in court for legal cases involving school bus collisions and have extensive experience and knowledge to equip student transporters to further safety at their operations.
STN EXPO West will be held July 9-15 at the Peppermill Resort in Reno, Nevada. The conference will feature hands-on training classes, educational sessions, a dynamic keynote presentation, and networking opportunities. Register now at stnexpo.com/west.
A 16-year-old Harrisburg teen has been charged with criminal homicide after the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old student moments after stepping off a school bus.
Jeremiah Moran, 16, is charged with first-degree murder, firearms not to be carried without a license, and possession of a firearm by a minor in connection with the death of a 17-year-old.
Police said the fatal shooting occurred May 29 near an intersection shortly after students were dismissed from school and days before the end of the school year. The 17-year-old had just exited a school bus when investigators say Moran approached and opened fire. The victim was transported to a local hospital for emergency care but died due to his injuries.
Video Shows Fatal Shooting
Investigators reportedly obtained video evidence allegedly showing Moran firing the weapon to shoot the victim, identified as Camar Cordero by local reports. Police said via local news that Moran later admitted to officers that he shot Cordero.
“There still is some of the puzzle that needs to be put together. But at this point in time, I think we have a pretty good understanding of what transpired and as to why it transpired as well,” Harrisburg Police Capt. Kyle Gautsch told local news reporters.
Investigators have not publicly released a motive for the fatal shooting.
However, the shooting prompted a large police response as officers secured the scene and collected evidence. Authorities noted that a school bus visible at the scene was not the bus Cordero had been riding but another bus traveling behind it.
Sixth Street remained closed for several hours while detectives processed evidence. Crime scene tape surrounded a large section of the roadway, where investigators marked multiple pieces of evidence. Witnesses reported seeing clothing and numerous evidence markers within the secured area. The road reopened around 6:15 p.m.
Neighbors who rushed to assist the victim described a chaotic scene in the moments after gunfire erupted. Judith Weaver, who helped organize emergency aid before first responders arrived, said residents immediately worked to help the wounded teen.
“I knew the bus had just let out. So, I went running down there,” Weaver told local news reporters. “Everyone was just so worked up. It was all chaos.”
Weaver said bystanders used available fabric to apply pressure to Cordero’s wounds while waiting for emergency personnel. She credited several community members, including a young girl who assisted efforts to keep the victim conscious.
Lt. Brandon Braughler of the Harrisburg Police Bureau praised residents who responded and cooperated with investigators. “The community came out,” Braughler said. “They’ve been very cooperative helping establish a very large crime scene.”
The fatal shooting has renewed concerns about youth violence in the city. Gautsch urged parents to remain actively involved in their children’s lives and be aware of potential warning signs.
“Make sure you know what’s going on with your children, what’s going on in their heads, and what’s in your lives and their lives,” Gautsch said.
The Harrisburg School District also responded to the tragedy. Superintendent Benjamin Henry said he hopes to hold a memorial in the coming days for Cordero and another student who died last week after being struck by a vehicle.
“As a father and an educator, I refuse to normalize this tragic shooting,” Henry said in a statement, calling on residents, community leaders and elected officials to work together to address violence affecting young people.
Police continue to investigate and are asking anyone with information about the case to contact the Harrisburg Bureau of Police.
In a statement, Evers said he was trying to move Wisconsin’s “justice system into the 21st Century by reforming our criminal justice and corrections systems to improve public safety, reduce the likelihood that individuals will reoffend when they enter our communities and save taxpayer dollars in the long run.”
Some supporters of Evers’ decision say people can change after decades in prison and that remaining there no longer serves any beneficial purpose.
Gov. Tony Evers restarted the commutation process in Wisconsin in April. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
However, critics question whether people convicted of serious violent crimes should ever be released early.
Jones sits at the center of these views.
He was sentenced in 2004 to two consecutive terms of life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
He said he fully acknowledges his crimes, which occurred during an armed tavern robbery in Racine, and continues to have remorse over them.
“No amount of right I have done would ever erase the wrong I have done to my victims and their families, and I understand that perfectly,” Jones said. “I also know that I am a transformed man, and I am rehabilitated.”
Applying for commutation
Jones said he decided to apply for a commutation the moment his wife, Jessica Jones, told him about Evers’ announcement.
There are two commutation tracks: a general commutation process for people convicted as adults and a separate process for some sentenced as juveniles.
Jones, who was 22 when he was sentenced to life and is now 44, qualifies for the first track.
Applicants qualify for this track if they are: incarcerated on a Wisconsin conviction, have more than one year left on their sentence, have served at least half their incarceration term or at least 20 years of a life sentence.
They also cannot be serving sentences for sex offenses, have unresolved criminal charges or warrants, or have committed violent misconduct in prison within the past five years.
Individuals who apply must provide information about the crimes for which they are seeking commutation, prior interactions with law enforcement, prison disciplinary history, rehabilitation efforts, and reentry plans.
Applications also require certified court records as well as letters of support.
“Emotionally, a person has to remain calm,” Jones said. “There is a sense of urgency that will be overwhelming at times.”
He said coming up with a clear plan has been vital to overcoming his panic.
“One box at a time. One task at a time,” he said.
For and against
Nationally, many politicians associated with “tough-on-crime” policies have opposed sentence reductions for people convicted of violent crimes, arguing rehabilitation cannot outweigh the harm caused.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany said he would end commutations if elected governor. (Jeffrey Phelps for Wisconsin Watch)
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany’s gubernatorial campaign told NNS that he would rescind the executive orders that allow murderers, including those serving life sentences, to be released back into the community after 20 years.
“He is making a commitment as governor that he will not release violent criminals early and will ensure victims and their families receive the full measure of justice,” said the Tiffany campaign.
Diego Rodriguez, coalition coordinator forJustice Forward Wisconsin, an advocacy coalition focused on criminal justice reform, said he understands the concerns people have but believes they are based on misunderstandings of the process.
Commutation is far from automatic, he said. The approval process includes multiple reviews, eligibility restrictions and detailed reentry planning requirements.
“These are pretty thorough applications,” Rodriguez said. “If somebody still poses a threat to the community, they’re not going to let them out.”
Shannon Ross, a criminal justice advocate who works with Justice Forward to support the commutation application process, said people in prison who have genuinely transformed often have clear ways of showing that to be the case.
“If you’ve been doing the work, if you’ve been spending your time constructively, this is your moment,” Ross said.
Impact of victims
The impact of a commutation on victims and survivors will be part of how applications are evaluated, according to Executive Order #287. Also evaluated will be the potential impact on public safety, applicants’ prison conduct and their personal growth and development since conviction.
“What commutations allow is for the governor to come in and to step in and to identify people who have made changes,” Rodriguez said.
If someone is truly remorseful, has accepted responsibility and demonstrated long-term change, prison no longer serves any meaningful rehabilitative purpose, he said.
Rodriguez also said that commutations could improve public safety by helping reduce overcrowding inside Wisconsin prisons.
“Far more people are incarcerated than we even have space for,” Rodriguez said.
Under these conditions, Rodriguez said, prisons become less safe and less effective at rehabilitation.
“It makes our community less safe when we have overcrowded prisons because they’re not getting the same quality of treatment,” Rodriguez said.
Accountability
During a commutation application webinar organized by Justice Forward Wisconsin, former Wisconsin Parole Commission Chair John Tate II said accountability is central to the process.
“The thing that I would emphasize the most when we’re talking about a discretionary mechanism within the criminal legal system is accountability, accountability, accountability,” Tate said.
“Any minimization of what their role in that (crime) was is often seen as a lack of accountability,” he added.
Jones said his accountability starts with fully acknowledging the harm he caused and what kind of person he once was.
“I was a horrible person, and I took lives without mercy,” Jones said.
But Jones said decades in prison changed him.
His wife, Jessica, who met him while working at the New Lisbon Correctional Institution in Juneau County, said her views on rehabilitation have changed by getting to know people who are incarcerated.
“Most of the general public believes that all people in prison are horrible people, incorrigible and worthless,” she said. “I used to be one of those people. I believed everyone in prison could be nothing more than their worst day. Then, I worked in the prison and learned how wrong I was.”
She said she met many men in prison who shouldn’t be there anymore. She believes her husband is one of them.
“He does more good than many free people I know,” she said. “He does not let his sentence or crime define him even though it’s a daily reality.”
Open questions
Major questions about the process still remain, including how quickly applications will be processed and how many people could ultimately receive commutations.
There is also uncertainty surrounding the future of the process itself. NNS reached out to the governor’s office to ask whether the commutation process could change under new leadership but did not receive a response.
“This is a governor’s last term,” Rodriguez said. “When it comes to executive orders, those can be changed in an instant.”
Elvira Benitez Suarez stepped out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office in downtown Milwaukee on Monday to cheers from a crowd of supporters — her first time leaving the building without handcuffs.
The 51-year-old Sheboygan Falls woman left U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody last week on bond; her daughter picked her up outside the northern Kentucky detention facility where she had spent the previous two months.
“I didn’t see daylight for 17 days, so I was very, very heartened and excited that I saw my family,” she said.
The Monday morning check-in in Milwaukee was her first interaction with immigration authorities since returning to Wisconsin. She arrived with her family, attorney and two members of the Milwaukee Common Council in tow.
Nearly a dozen other immigrants wove through the crowd to line up behind Benitez for their own check-ins; some picked up contact information from her attorney while they waited to enter the building.
Benitez’s time in Kentucky was her second stint in ICE custody in the past year. Benitez, who emigrated from Mexico as a teenager and lived without legal status for over three decades, first landed in detention after a wrong turn on a family road trip took her across the Canadian border in July 2025. U.S. immigration authorities arrested her when she reentered the country. Benitez had no prior interactions with law enforcement or the federal immigration court system.
In her absence, Benitez’s two adult daughters, both U.S.-born, took in their school-age siblings and helped manage their parents’ painting and cleaning business.
A federal district court judge in Ohio ruled last fall that Benitez is eligible for a green card, citing — among other factors — the hardships her children experienced in her absence. After waiting a month for immigration authorities to complete her background check, Benitez returned to Wisconsin in December, only to be arrested again during a check-in at the Milwaukee DHS office in March while the agency appealed the judge’s ruling.
“We checked in, everything went fine, and we were actually walking out the door when they stopped us,” recalled her attorney, Marc Christopher.
After stops in Chicago and Indianapolis, Benitez landed in a cell at the Campbell County Detention Center, a northern Kentucky jail that contracts with ICE to hold immigrants facing deportation proceedings. Benitez recounted finding fellow Wisconsinites in her unit; nearly two dozen other immigrants detained in Wisconsin have passed through Campbell County within the last year.
But a recent decision by an Ohio-based federal appeals court opened a door for Benitez to again return to Wisconsin. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that a year-old Trump administration policy requiring detention for most immigrants in deportation proceedings amounts to a violation of due process rights, joining federal appellate courts in New York and Georgia. Appellate courts in Louisiana and Missouri have sided with the Trump administration, and the appellate court based in Chicago remains divided on the issue.
The 6th Circuit holds jurisdiction over Kentucky, and its ruling allowed Benitez to file a bond motion in immigration court — an option once available to most immigrant detainees that largely vanished after the Trump administration introduced its mandatory detention policy last year. An immigration court judge in Memphis granted her bond motion on May 21, setting her bond amount at the minimum allowed under court rules: $1,500.
As a condition of her bond, Benitez will continue checking in at the Milwaukee DHS office.
Elvira Benitez Suarez leaves the U.S. Department of Homeland Security office in downtown Milwaukee on June 1, 2026, accompanied by Milwaukee Common Council members Alex Brower, left, and JoCasta Zamarripa and attorney Marc Christopher, right. (Paul Kiefer / Wisconsin Watch)
Benitez’s Monday morning check-in was brief and straightforward. Like other immigrants granted bond, she was directed by immigration officers to download a tracking app that will prompt her to take a photograph of her face once a week to compare against booking photos.
DHS is still appealing last year’s ruling that set Benitez on track to secure legal permanent residency. That appeal, currently in the hands of the federal Board of Immigration Appeals, is still pending.
“I would never put anything past the Board of Immigration Appeals,” Christopher said during a press conference on Monday, alluding to the board’s recent tendency to side with the Trump administration on immigration court rule changes. Nevertheless, Christopher added that he believes Benitez’s case is strong enough to defy the odds.
Benitez herself is still recovering. “I can’t sleep,” she said, recounting the grim details of her latest stint in custody — fellow detainees whose pregnancies ended in miscarriages, late-night bus trips with erratic drivers and no seat belts, and harassment from nonimmigrant inmates with whom she shared a cell in Kentucky. Benitez noted that she is in contact with the families of several fellow detainees who remain in Kentucky.
Her eldest daughter, Crystal Aguilar, also needs time to bounce back. In her mother’s absence, “my life was on hold,” she said. A return to normality still seems far away, she added.
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CALIFORNIA, Mo. – Durham School Services, a premier transportation provider and leader, is proud to share that its maintenance teams at their Central, Kearney, and Lawson locations have received a total of eight Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) Total Fleet Excellence Awards. The award is given as part of the MSHP’s annual school bus inspection program to recognize maintenance teams for their exceptional dedication to safety excellence and standards. The eight awards were earned from inspections at the following school districts served by Durham: Clarksburg, High Point, Kearney, Latham, Lawson, Russellville, Smithton, and Tipton.
The MSHP conducts school bus inspections on an annual basis for every school bus fleet across the state of Missouri. These inspections include a comprehensive list of crucial assessment areas such as steering and suspension, tires, brakes, seats, lighting and signaling, crossing control arm, and many more, that are thoroughly examined against rigorous criteria to ensure proper safety compliance and utmost functionality. After the inspection is complete, if 90% or more of the fleet passes the inspection with zero out-of-service defects, the team is presented with the Fleet Excellence Award, which includes a certificate and the Patrol’s Total Fleet Excellence sticker, which can be displayed on the window of the bus.
“The Fleet Excellence Award holds great significance to our teams as it is a symbol of their unwavering commitment to ensure our fleets are continuously well maintained and always in top shape,” said Justin Gieck, Central Region Maintenance Manager, Durham School Services. “It is their chance to really shine and is a testament to their great teamwork, determined efforts, and high regard for safety. Earning this prestigious award is not an easy feat, and I am extremely proud of all our teams for this achievement. Congratulations – it is well-deserved and thank you again for the hard work you put in around the clock so that students are riding safe and dependable buses to and from school each and every day.”
If you’re looking for a fulfilling career that plays an important role in supporting the safety of students and your community, we encourage you to join our maintenance team. We offer competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, ASE certification support and bonuses, and more. Text TECH to 63552 or visit our careers page to learn more.
About Durham School Services:
As a premier transportation provider, Durham School Services provides safe, reliable student transportation that communities trust and families depend on. With operational discipline, local commitment, proven safety standards, and clear accountability, we bring deep expertise to every route we operate. Driven by our five values: Safety, Care, Transparency, Communities, and Culture, we deliver transportation that works quietly, consistently, and without disruption.
Life jackets save lives. Don’t take the risk by failing to put one on.
According to U.S. Coast Guard boating statistics, 76% of fatal boating incident victims drowned, and 87% of those whose life jacket use was known were not wearing one. Many were skilled boaters who could swim. You wouldn’t try to put on a seat belt during a car crash, and you can’t put on a life jacket in the middle of a boating emergency.
Wearing a life jacket on the water is critical, so before you head out, make sure everyone has one that fits properly. Find a Sea Tow Foundation Life Jacket Loaner Station near you if you need to borrow one. It may protect your life.
Gail R. Kulp is executive director of the Sea Tow Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit whose mission is to provide access to education, tools and resources to eliminate preventable recreational boating accidents and deaths.
Track Wisconsin’s prison population is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
As school districts enter summer vacation, being cautious around school buses remains a priority. A Florida family joined the local school district and Sheriff in speaking out after a 14-year-old girl was struck by a car while attempting to board a school bus in Lee County.
The sheriff’s office and school district held a bus stop safety news conference May 21 following the incident in Estero, Florida, involving eighth-grader Abigail Westveer and several similar incidents across the county. More than 25,000 drivers were caught illegally passing Lee County school buses over a five-month span, alarming law enforcement officials and school leaders. During the conference, Superintendent Denise Carlin said the district partnered with BusPatrol and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office last year to install stop-arm cameras on school buses.
“We installed cameras on our bus fleet to capture video of drivers who fail to stop when a bus is stopping to pick up or drop off our children,” Carlin said.
Westveer was hit the morning of March 31, when a motorist illegally passed a stopped school bus on the right side where the teenager was walked toward the loading doors, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. Video of the incident shows the girl approaching the bus when the sedan comes from behind the bus and passes on the right side at a high rate of speed.
The BusPatrol footage shows the motorist attempting to brake and steering to the right onto a grassy area to try avoid hitting Westveer. Instead, the motorist side-swiped Westveer, striking the girl in the back with the left side of the vehicle. The teen braces herself moments before impact and is thrown to the ground, sliding several feet.
Seconds later, the video shows the driver, whose identity was not immediately released by authorities, exit the vehicle and run toward the teen as another bystander approaches to help.
“That video sickens me,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said during the press conference. “When those lights are red and that bus stops, stop your vehicle. It’s that simple,” he continued.
Marceno said the enforcement initiative is focused on changing dangerous driving habits around school buses. “There’s one goal here and one mission: Changing driver behavior. It’s about educating the public and saving lives,” he said. Ninety-plus percent of the violators don’t repeat offend. That means the program works.
“Our goal is not to give everybody a ticket. Our goal is to write no tickets because people comply.”
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said Westveer “was nearly seriously injured” in the crash, calling the incident “a frightening reminder of how quickly lives can change in just seconds.”
Student Escapes Serious Injury Following Illegal Passing Strike
The incident came only seven weeks after the girl’s father died. The family said they are still mourning his loss while trying to recover from the latest traumatic event.
“I damn near lost my granddaughter because of someone that wasn’t paying attention,” Westveer’s grandfather Brian Masters said during the news conference. “This has got to stop before someone does get killed.”
Lori Masters, the girl’s grandmother, added that despite being hit Westveer was at school the following day. She noted that a responding deputy said the outcome could have been much worse if the girl turned to face the oncoming vehicle instead of bracing for impact.
Authorities confirmed that the motorist received a citation in connection with the incident. Additional details about the citation were not immediately released, but Marceno said their could be further a investigation of the motorist.
In the weeks following the incident, local officials have used Westveer’s story to raise awareness about school bus safety and the dangers of illegally passing stopped buses. “Every violation represents a child who could have been seriously killed or injured,” Marceno said.
BusPatrol President and CIO Justin Myers said the program is designed to reduce dangerous driving behavior around school buses through enforcement and education. “Every single violation that the sheriff’s office issues is an opportunity to permanently change that driver’s behavior,” Myers said.
Under Florida law, motorists traveling in both directions must stop when a school bus displays its stop sign and flashing red lights unless the road is divided by a physical barrier. Drivers who illegally pass a stopped school bus can face multiple penalties depending on the severity of the violation and whether children were endangered or injured. Violating the law is considered a moving violation under Florida Statute 316.172.
Myers said the company has seen illegal passing violations decline significantly in communities using stop-arm camera enforcement technology. “We’ve seen degradation of this behavior in communities by as much as 30, 40, or even 50% in the first couple of years,” he said.
Officials said many drivers either ignore the law or fail to pay attention around school zones and bus stops, creating dangerous situations for students entering or exiting buses. “It is entirely unacceptable, entirely preventable,” Myers said.
“Nothing is more important than making sure every child gets home safely,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement released during the news conference. “Together, we are making Lee County safer, one child, one bus stop, and one school zone at a time.”
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Wisconsin’s women’s prisons are 78% over capacity compared to its men’s facilities, which are 30% over capacity.
The issue isn’t new, but despite decades of overcrowding, the system is approaching a record number of prisoners.
Wisconsin Watch created a tracker that shows how the population of each prison has changed over time and how far it is above that facility’s design capacity.
As Wisconsin’s prison population nears a record high, the state’s already-full prisons are getting even more crowded — especially for women. The state’s three women’s prisons collectively house 18 women for every 10they were designed for, making them the most crowded of all state facilities.
One reason: While growth in the women’s prison population has far outpaced growth in the men’s system, Wisconsin prison officials shrank the facilities that housed them — to make more space for men.
Now, to make room for women, prison officials have set up beds in gyms and offices.
“They just cram us in wherever they can, it’s sad,” wrote Sarah Buckingham, who is currently incarcerated at Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional Center, a minimum-security facility in Racine County that now houses more than twice as many people as it was designed for.
Across the system, the rising number of prisoners and a shortage of staff have strained resources. Prisoners often wait months or years for limited spots in treatment, education and work programs, the very programs designed to prepare them for release. That, advocates say, could mean people wait longer to get out, or even end up returning to prison — making facilities even more crowded.
A new data tool from Wisconsin Watch allows anyone to track the population of the system and of each facility for free. The dashboard, which shows weekly population and capacity counts going back to 2006, updates automatically when prison officials post the latest figures.
The data makes it clear: Overcrowding is not new. Wisconsin’s prisons have held thousands more people than intended for at least the last 20 years. The population dipped during the COVID-19 pandemic but is now heading toward an all-time high. More than 23,600 people are in state custody, according to the latest figures available from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. That’s about 200 shy of the record 23,826 set in 2019.
The dashboard can’t show how the trends could soon change. In April, Gov. Tony Evers announced the state would soon commute prison sentences for the first time in 25 years, though it’s not yet clear how many people may be eligible or how long the process will take.
Women’s prisons are the most crowded
Female prisoners bear the brunt of the state’s overcrowding predicament. While the state’s male facilities are about 30% over capacity in total, its female facilities are 78% over capacity. That’s according to the department’s latest data, which shows population and capacity as of May 22.
Taycheedah Correctional Institution, the state’s only maximum-security women’s prison, is designed to house 653. On May 22, it housed 1,039.
Prison officials have raised alarms about conditions at Taycheedah for at least a decade.
“The increased population at TCI has detrimental effects on the prison,” they wrote in a 2016 budget request, when the population was 873. Crowded conditions could cause security problems, they wrote, as each correctional officer must supervise more prisoners. They also noted the steep competition for access to programs for treatment or training.
“There is also decreased programming availability to inmates, and programming has been shown to help reduce recidivism,” the authors wrote.
Since then, the facility has added nearly 170 women.
“(Taycheedah) has already undergone conversions to turn spaces into living areas that were not originally meant to be used as living areas due to a problem with overcrowding,” said Daniel Cromwell, an administrator for the state’s corrections department, in an April court filing.
Wisconsin Watch heard from six currently incarcerated women who watched the women’s prison population balloon. They described sharing already overcrowded bathrooms with more women and competing for treatment and employment resources.
Department of Corrections spokesperson Beth Hardtke confirmed that beds have previously been set up in the gym at Taycheedah but said no one is living in the gym now. Taycheedah staff are currently converting a “former property room” into a dormitory to house 20 women, Hardtke said.
The issue isn’t isolated to Taycheedah. The Milwaukee Women’s Center is at 255% capacity. Robert E. Ellsworth Correctional is now at 219% of its capacity.
Fifteen years ago, the state’s women’s prisons had nearly enough space, not just because there were fewer prisoners, but because there was a fourth women’s minimum-security prison. John C. Burke Correctional Center in Waupun, designed for 186 prisoners, housed women from 2000 to 2011, when it was converted into a men’s minimum-security prison.
The move dropped the capacity of the women’s system — just as the number of female prisoners spiked. In the 15 years since, the women’s prison population has grown nearly 29%, more than four times as fast as the men’s population.
Now, state officials are making plans to turn Burke back into a women’s prison, part of a $500 million prison reorganization Gov. Tony Evers proposed last year.
Overcrowding limits education, training
Overcrowding doesn’t just mean getting an extra roommate or waiting longer for a shower. It also means prisons need extra staff — staff they often struggle to find. In 2023, prison officials locked down Waupun — canceling programs and confining prisoners to their cells for the better part of several months — because they didn’t have enough officers to conduct normal operations, Wisconsin Watch reporting revealed.
Those shortages can mean prison programs get cut or canceled, said Shannon Ross, founder and executive director of the Milwaukee-based nonprofit The Community, which helps incarcerated people pursue education and develop as leaders.
“If you have too many people to watch per staff member, now, ‘Oh, we can’t have classes tonight because we need to have more people over here watching more people that are incarcerated,’” Ross said.
Ross, who earned a bachelor’s degree while serving a 17-year sentence in Wisconsin prisons, said when prisons are packed and money is tight, prison officials scale back vocational training and higher education to focus on the basics: food, housing, security, court-ordered programming and services prisons are legally required to provide.
“Anything beyond that is going to become superfluous,” he said. That’s a problem, he said, because more than 90% of Wisconsin’s prisoners will one day be released. “Who do we want them to be?”
How we got here
Wisconsin isn’t the only state struggling to find room for all its prisoners. Across the country, prison populations spiked in the 1980s and 1990s as states adopted harsher punishments and “truth-in-sentencing” legislation. The latter requires most prisoners to spend their full sentence behind bars, without the possibility of parole.
Suddenly the flow of people out of prison slowed, while as many as ever flowed in. Lots also flowed back, returning to prison for allegedly violating the terms of their release.
In Wisconsin, the prison population peaked in August 2019 at 23,826, then dropped sharply beginning in March 2020 as courts shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In just over a year, the number of people in prison fell by nearly 20% to 19,381, the lowest figure in the last two decades.
As the state’s courts reopened, they began working through a backlog of cases — and sending more people to prison. In a 2023 report, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau said that if the prison population continued growing as fast as it was, it would set a record of 24,800 by July 2025.
The authors predicted that wouldn’t happen, and they were right.
“While recent growth patterns have been sizable, it is likely that the updated growth rate is too high to continue for the duration of the 2023-25 biennium, and that the recent rapid growth is likely temporary,” the authors wrote, noting that “at some point, the courts will catch up and prison populations will level out and grow at a slower rate.”
Still, the numbers have kept rising, and the growth has gotten faster, not slower. In the last year, that growth has been fueled entirely by a surge in women prisoners: While the male population fell slightly between May 2025 and May 2026, the female population rose by more than 4%.
What’s the solution?
Policymakers and prisoner advocates disagree about the answer to Wisconsin’s crowded prisons.
Closing the nearly 130-year-old Green Bay Correctional Institution.
Transforming Waupun Correctional Institution into a “vocational village.”
Converting the troubled Lincoln Hills School from a juvenile prison to an adult prison.
Converting Burke into a women’s prison.
Expanding a program that allows some people incarcerated for nonviolent crimes to qualify for early release by completing treatment for substance use.
Together the changes would reduce the state’s prison capacity by 700. The plan drew criticism from Republican lawmakers, who pointed to the state’s crowded prisons as a sign that the state needs more space in its prisons, not less.
State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, said the answer is “right-sizing” the number of prisoners by “adding additional beds, reducing overcrowding and making facilities safer for not only our inmates, but for our staff,” Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
In October, the State of Wisconsin Building Commission released $15 million to plan for Evers’ proposed changes.
Ross of The Community calls that proposal a “marginal improvement.”
“It’s not getting us the level of change that everybody would need to see and want to see … You’ve got to get past marginal improvements at some point to really have something different,” Ross said. “Otherwise, it’s just a different version of the exact same problem every year we’re facing.”
One way to do that, he said, is to repeal truth-in-sentencing laws to reduce the number of people behind bars.
“Stop having a system in which people cannot get back out if they’re ready,” Ross said.
That, like other major prison changes, would require legislative action. But lawmakers in the Republican majority have stymied reform for years, Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said.
“Gov. Evers has repeatedly worked to comprehensively reform our state’s justice system and corrections statutes to save taxpayers and reduce overcrowding, invest in evidence-based alternatives to incarceration, and improve public safety in our communities while reducing the likelihood that someone may reoffend once they have completed their sentence,” Cudaback said in an email.
But Evers can’t make those changes unilaterally, Cudaback said, and lawmakers in the Republican majority have “refused nearly every effort to address these challenges over the last nearly eight years.”
In April, with nine months left in office, Evers announced he would use one of the few tools available for single-handedly easing overcrowding: commutations. It’s the first time in 25 years that incarcerated people in Wisconsin can request to have their sentence shortened.
Advocates across the state are still trying to determine how many of Wisconsin’s nearly 24,000 prisoners may be eligible, and they’re working to help as many eligible people as possible apply.
The first meeting of the Commutation Advisory Board will take place in June, and the first commutations will be issued some time after that. With Gov. Evers leaving office in January, it will be up to the next governor to decide whether the process continues.
Wisconsin Watch reporter Addie Costello contributed to this report.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
In student transportation, communication is not just an operational tool. It is a safety system. As fleets expand across districts, regions and states, traditional communication models are increasingly unable to keep pace with the demands of real-time coordination, incident response and compliance. Forward-looking transportation leaders are rethinking communication not as a standalone function, but as a foundational layer of a modern, safety-critical operating model.
This shift is redefining how drivers, dispatchers and operations teams collaborate to deliver safer and more reliable service for students and families.
The Growing Gap in Legacy Communication Systems
For decades, school transportation has relied on analog radio systems. While historically effective, these systems now present structural limitations in a modern, distributed operating environment: Limited range across rural, suburban and multi-district routes; channel congestion during peak routing windows; fragmented communication across regions and operating companies; lack of integration with routing, safety and compliance platforms; and ongoing infrastructure and maintenance overhead.
At scale, these constraints are not just inefficient. They introduce risks. When communication slows down, safety responses slow down.
Reframing Communication as Strategic Capability
Leading transportation providers are approaching communication transformation with a different mindset. Instead of viewing it as a device upgrade, they are treating it as a core operational capability that directly impacts:
Driver confidence and retention.
Dispatcher effectiveness and workload.
Incident response times and safety outcomes.
Cross-regional coordination during disruptions.
Visibility for leadership and decision-making.
This shift requires strong leadership alignment and a deliberate focus on change management, not just technology deployment. As one operations leader noted, the goal is not to replace radios, but to future-proof communication across the organization.
What Modern Communication Looks Like
Modern communication models in school transportation are defined by a few key characteristics:
1. Real-Time, Nationwide Connectivity
Communication is no longer constrained by geography. Dispatchers can connect with drivers across regions instantly, enabling coordinated responses to weather events, route disruptions, or safety incidents. 2. Seamless Integration with Operations
Communication is increasingly integrated with routing systems, safety platforms and operational dashboards. This creates a unified environment where communication and data work together. 3. Simplicity for Frontline Users
Despite backend complexity, the user experience must remain simple. One-touch communication, intuitive interfaces and minimal training friction are critical for driver adoption. 4. Security and Reliability
As communication becomes digital, encryption, uptime and reliability become essential components of a safety-first architecture.
Execution Matters: The Role of Change Management
Technology alone does not drive transformation. Execution does. Successful implementations typically follow a structured approach: Pilot deployments across diverse operating environments; standardized onboarding and training for drivers and dispatchers; device and workflow standardization to reduce variability; continuous feedback loops to refine usability; and close collaboration between technology, operations and safety teams.
Organizations that invest in change management see faster adoption, higher satisfaction and more measurable outcomes.
Measurable Impact on Safety and Operations
When communication is modernized effectively, the impact is tangible: Faster dispatcher-to-driver response times, often reduced by 30 to 40 percent; improved coordination during emergencies and service disruptions; reduced dependency on physical infrastructure and maintenance overhead; enhanced incident escalation and documentation; and greater consistency across multi-location operations.
More importantly, these improvements translate into better outcomes for students. Faster communication means faster response. And in a safety-critical environment, minutes matter.
Beyond Tech: A Cultural Shift
Perhaps the most important outcome of modern communication is cultural. Drivers feel more connected and supported in the field, dispatchers operate with greater clarity and confidence, and leadership gains real-time visibility into operations. Additionally, organizations move from reactive to proactive decision-making.
This is not just a systems upgrade. It is a shift toward a more connected, responsive and people-centered operating model.
The Road Ahead
As the student transportation industry continues to evolve, communication will play an increasingly central role in enabling: Scalable growth across regions and contracts; compliance with evolving safety and regulatory expectations; integration with AI-driven routing, monitoring and analytics platforms; and a more resilient and adaptive transportation network.
The organizations that lead this transformation will not be defined by the tools they adopt, but by how they integrate communication into the fabric of their operations.
Final Thought
In student transportation, every conversation has the potential to impact
safety. Modernizing communication is not just about efficiency. It is about
ensuring that every driver, dispatcher and operations leader is equipped to
respond, support and protect the students they serve. And that is where technology, leadership and purpose come together.
Editor’s Note: As reprinted from the May 2026 issue of School Transportation News.
Gaurav Sharda is the chief technical officer for student transportation company Beacon Mobility and the 2025 STN Innovator of the Year.
Tesla is worried owners may overload their Model Ys due to a missing label.
The safety concern has been blamed on issues with a vision-scanning tool.
Impacted Model Y owners will be alerted to the recall from July 17.
Recalls usually come dressed up in regulatory language that hides how mundane the underlying problem is. This one is refreshingly honest about it. More than 14,000 examples of the 2025 and 2026 Tesla Model Y are being recalled in the United States, and unlike most Tesla recalls, an over-the-air update will not fix it.
The recall says Tesla noticed a vehicle with a missing certification label during a routine audit of its Fremont factory last month. It was soon discovered that an automated vision-scanning tool, which verifies the presence of a properly affixed certification label, wasn’t performing as it should have.
The certification label lists the vehicle’s weight specifications, the numbers owners check before loading cargo or hitching a trailer. Without it, drivers can exceed those limits without realizing it, and an overloaded Model Y brakes, handles, and crashes differently than the one Tesla engineered.
What’s The Fix?
A total of 14,575 vehicles are caught up in the recall. The list includes 2,697 Model Ys built between November 17, 2024, and February 24, 2025, covering the 2025 model year, plus another 11,878 examples produced from February 25, 2025, through April 21, 2026. It is a large pool of cars, but Tesla says it is not aware of any collisions, injuries, or fatalities tied to the missing sticker, which is about what you would expect from a label-related defect.
Tesla says it repaired the automated scanning tool on April 17 at its Fremont, California, factory and also began performing manual checks to ensure newly produced models have the correct certification label. In addition, the scanning tool at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas was also fixed on May 7.
Owners of impacted Model Ys will be alerted to the recall from July 17, and Tesla will inspect affected vehicles and attach the certification label as required.
Los Angeles International Airport customs officers took Everlee Wihongi aside for questioning in April. Her family hasn’t seen her since.
Wihongi, a longtime resident of Hortonville, Wisconsin, was passing through Los Angeles during a return trip from her native New Zealand. The 37-year-old green card holder had made the same trip at least a half-dozen times, even after pleading no contest to a felony marijuana possession charge in Fond du Lac County in her mid-20s.
But with the White House’s nationwide immigration enforcement crackdown in full swing, customs officers took a new approach to the felony on her record. After a few uneasy hours in a secluded screening room, Wihongi left the airport in shackles en route to an immigration detention center in a desert valley northeast of Los Angeles.
Wihongi is one of hundreds of legal permanent residents federal immigration authorities have detained since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, often while they passed through airports and other ports of entry. Most — like Wihongi — had prior criminal convictions.
Those convictions generally make immigrants “inadmissible,” meaning they cannot freely re-enter the U.S.
Customs officers have “a lot of discretion at the port of entry” when deciding whether to allow green card holders with convictions like Wihongi’s to re-enter the country, Madison-based immigration attorney Aissa Olivarez said. “They have given none lately.”
“Possessing a green card is a privilege, not a right,” a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson wrote in an email to Wisconsin Watch. “Our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused,” the spokesperson added, and to detain legal permanent residents while they await a decision in their removal case.
The sharp increase in arrests of green card holders doesn’t stem from a policy change, but immigration attorneys say cases like Wihongi’s are yet another sign that federal immigration authorities are reshuffling their priorities.
Old conviction is grounds for detention
Wihongi has held a green card since childhood, when her father’s career as a locomotive engineer brought the family to northeast Wisconsin. “As the years went by, it was just cheaper to renew (her) green card,” her mother, Betty Wihongi, recalled.
Her 2014 conviction was not grounds for deportation, said Marc Christopher, a Milwaukee immigration attorney representing Wihongi. “She can remain here and become a U.S. citizen,” he said, “but once she crosses the border, she’s governed by the rules of admissibility.”
But family vacations to New Zealand passed without incident over the decade following Wihongi’s conviction. “Normally, they will just look at, look at your passport, look at your green card, you know, ask you, where you’ve been?” her mother said. “And usually it’s like two, three minutes, not even that.”
“I just don’t think they made an issue of it” in the past, Christopher added. “They weren’t going to detain her for two to three months,” he said, in part because detaining and prosecuting a green card holder is an expensive undertaking. As of May 2025, DHS reported that the average cost to arrest, detain and deport an immigrant was roughly $17,000, though costs vary widely from case to case.
DHS detention records point to a sudden shift in practice after the Trump administration resumed control of immigration enforcement operations last year. Immigration authorities detained an average of at least 100 legal permanent residents each month between January 2025 and February 2026 — five times the monthly average in the final two years of the Biden administration, the only portion of his term for which data is available.
At least 75% of legal permanent residents detained during the latter half of the Biden administration had prior criminal convictions, compared with at least 66% of those detained since Trump returned to office.
Only a tiny fraction of detainees’ records from either period list marijuana possession as their most serious criminal charge, though immigration enforcement officers arrested more legal permanent residents with prior marijuana possession convictions in the first year of the Trump administration than in the previous two years combined.
Wihongi is the second Wisconsin green card holder in ICE custody to join Christopher’s caseload since January 2025. His previous client, also blocked from re-entering the country because of a prior marijuana possession conviction, spent five months in detention before Christopher secured his release.
Olivarez, the Madison-based immigration attorney, offered another recent example from her own caseload: a legal permanent resident and longtime Milwaukeean detained while returning from his wife’s funeral in Egypt because of a prior felony. That client eventually accepted a deportation order to avoid a lengthy stint in custody.
A stricter standard
The growing cohort of green card holders in ICE custody is still vastly outnumbered by the tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants detained alongside them.
Federal immigration authorities have arrested more than 400,000 people since January 2025, including roughly 1,700 in Wisconsin.
Just over half of all immigrants arrested by ICE in Wisconsin during the second Trump administration had prior criminal convictions, as was the case in the latter years of the Biden administration. But the criminal histories of more recent arrestees suggest that the stricter standards that landed Wihongi in custody are reshaping other corners of the immigration enforcement apparatus.
ICE officers in Wisconsin arrested 82 immigrants with prior traffic offense convictions in the first full year after Trump returned to office, up from 19 in the last full year of the Biden administration.
In years past, Christopher said, federal immigration authorities were less inclined to begin removal proceedings solely based on traffic offenses like driving without a license, instead prioritizing immigrants convicted of more serious offenses.
Immigrants who come into contact with Wisconsin courts after a traffic offense now face a far higher risk of landing in federal custody, Christopher added.
He attributes the shift in part to dramatic additions to DHS’ budget in the past year and a half. Those funding boosts, including a $170 billion increase last year, lowered the financial barriers that previously made federal immigration prosecutors wary of spending resources on immigrants with lower-priority criminal histories, Christopher argued.
Wihongi was the only legal permanent resident in the 46-person cell in Adelanto, California, where she spent her first month in detention, her mother told Wisconsin Watch.
Her visa doesn’t spare her from the unpredictability of the federal immigration detention system. When money disappeared without notice from her commissary account on a Friday in early May, Wihongi called her mother in a panic. “Inmates all know that if that happens to your commissary,” her mother explained, “that means they’re getting ready to transfer you.”
She resurfaced that Sunday in a detention camp outside El Paso, Texas, reaching her family by phone that evening to recount two mostly sleepless days of travel, including hours spent in shackles.
Wihongi has since transferred again to a federal contract facility in Eloy, Arizona. An internet outage Thursday pushed her first scheduled court appearance back a week. Meanwhile, Christopher has filed a motion in Fond du Lac County to vacate her 2014 conviction.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A teen girl was shot and injured near a school bus stop in Wood Village, Oregon, leading to the arrest of a 14-year old suspect who fled the scene.
According to the police report, Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputies responded around 4:14 p.m. May 15 to reports of a shooting near Northeast 235th Avenue after a school bus driver called 911. When first responders arrived, they found a teenage girl suffering from a gunshot wound.
Deputies immediately began providing life-saving aid until paramedics arrived and transported the girl to a local hospital. Authorities said she was alert and responsive while receiving treatment at the scene.
In an update released a day later, investigators confirmed the teen girl shot is 13 years old and has non-life threatening injuries. Detectives said the circumstances leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself remain under investigation, though preliminary findings indicate the incident may have started with an argument.
Witnesses told investigators the suspect ran from the area immediately after the shooting. Authorities did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the public, and no shelter-in-place order was issued.
Investigators coordinated with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office while interviewing witnesses, collecting video footage and processing evidence connected to the case.
The shooting rattled nearby residents, many of whom said they were alarmed to learn the victim was a young teenager. “I was really bummed to find out it was a teenager when I was talking to police,” nearby resident Corbin Mandzij told local news reporters.
Another neighbor expressed concern about violence occurring in a neighborhood with many children. “A stray bullet can go anywhere,” the neighbor told the station. “There’s lots of kids around here, my biggest worry is about the kids.”
Some residents said the shooting happened only steps from their homes. “It was 15 feet from my property line, right outside my front door,” one neighbor said. Others said the incident has left them feeling uneasy.
Teen Girl Shot by 14-Year-Old Boy, Police Allege
Authorities announced Tuesday that a 14-year-old boy accused of shooting the girl turned himself in to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. According to investigators, the surrender was coordinated through the suspect’s attorney after detectives requested he come forward.
The suspect surrendered at the Multnomah County Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Center and was booked on charges of attempted murder, first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Because the suspect is a juvenile, authorities said they will not release additional identifying information.
Investigators said the shooting began after two teenage girls got into a physical fight after exiting a school bus. Detectives said both girls knew the 14-year-old suspect. During the altercation, the boy allegedly pulled out a firearm and shot the 13-year-old girl before fleeing the scene. Authorities also confirmed the suspect is not enrolled in the Reynolds School District. However, it was unclear if the suspect was on board the school bus with the girls. The victim remains hospitalized with injuries considered non-life threatening.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office credited deputies, detectives, analysts and members of the U.S. Marshals Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force for their work on the investigation. Authorities also thanked community members who provided cellphone video, tips and other information related to the case.
Perrin Turney has become a familiar and trusted face in the rural Kneeland School District, where his job extends far beyond driving a school bus through the winding roads of Humboldt County.
Turney, a bus driver for Kneeland in rural Humboldt County, was recently named the 2026 California Classified School Employee of the Year for Transportation Services by the California Department of Education. The statewide recognition honors school employees who make significant contributions to public education.
For Turney, the award represents not only personal recognition but pride in the small mountain community he calls home. “Kneeland is a very small school, and not many people outside the area know we exist,” Turney told School Transportation News. “This recognition puts our school and district on the map in a really meaningful way.”
Turney has worked at Kneeland School since 2016, first serving as the school janitor before gradually taking on additional responsibilities. Over the years, he has helped with information technology, managed the school’s water system, supported students in classrooms, and assisted with math instruction for middle school students. He also manages the school website, helps troubleshoot technology issues across campus and fills in wherever needed in the one-school district.
Driving a school bus was never part of his original plan. “Eventually, the school asked if I would be willing to get my commercial license so I could serve as a backup bus driver,” Turney said. “What started as a temporary role became a job I truly care about.”
Now, transporting students safely across the district’s nearly 145 square miles of mountainous terrain has become one of his most important roles.
California School Bus Driver Wears Many Hats
The route presents daily challenges, including narrow roads, potholes, blind curves, black ice, fallen trees, and dense fog that can reduce visibility to only a few yards. Hurricane-force winds and sudden storms can quickly change driving conditions along the route, requiring constant awareness and preparation.
Perrin Turney with Kneeland students.
Turney said he begins each day by checking weather conditions, reviewing school cameras for visible hazards and driving the route himself before students board the bus. “If I feel the road conditions are unsafe, I do not hesitate to call the day off,” he said. “The goal is always the same: Get the students to and from school safely.”
His mornings typically begin before 7 a.m. with a pre-trip safety inspection at the bus yard before he heads out to pick up students in nearby Arcata, Freshwater and along the rural mountain roads leading to Kneeland School. Once students arrive safely on campus, Turney shifts into his other responsibilities for the day, helping with maintenance, assisting students, overseeing technology needs and teaching math.
School leaders say Turney’s calm demeanor and reliability have made him especially trusted among students and families. “Kneeland School District alum Perrin Turney wears many hats in the one-school district, none as important as bus driver,” district officials said in nomination materials supporting his award.
That steady presence has become especially important during unexpected situations on the road. In one memorable incident, steam suddenly poured from under the hood of the bus during a morning route after a coolant reservoir leak. Turney calmly reassured students, safely pulled the bus over and coordinated transportation arrangements while the bus was repaired.
“In those moments, the most important thing is to stay calm, understand the situation, reassure the students and make the safest decision possible,” he said.
Beyond transportation, Turney also created a “Maker’s Space” program that teaches students hands-on technical skills, including 3D printing and technology projects designed to introduce students to current technology trends.
Despite his many responsibilities, Turney said working with students remains the most rewarding part of his job. “Watching students grow into thoughtful, capable and kind people is an amazing thing to be part of,” he said. “The students also teach me how to be a better person.”
Students know Turney as a steady presence who balances safety with humor and compassion. He said consistency helps children feel secure during their rides to and from school.
“The bus should be a safe place, but it should also be a place where students can enjoy themselves a little and decompress,” Turney said.
Turney credits the California school bus driver recognition to the community members, coworkers, and families who supported his nomination.
“I feel grateful,” he said. “I am proud to represent Kneeland, and I could not be happier that this recognition shines a light not just on me, but on the school, the students, the families and the community that make this place so special.”
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I received an email from an industry colleague challenging me to tackle the topic of world-class safety. That seemed like a daunting task, but I am always up for a challenge.
Why are minimum standards the baseline for many school transportation operations? Why is it the minimum that we strive to meet as an industry? If someone came to me and said we meet the minimum safety standards, I wouldn’t be confident that my child was safe.
Let’s face it—The minimum means you cannot do any less. It is the bare minimum that is required. Almost every parent takes for granted that everything possible is being done to transport their children safely. They have no idea of the many factors that lead to the wide variation of safety practices and equipment that result in a wider variation of safety levels being delivered.
School transportation operations view whatever their states require as the level they need to meet, no more and no less. This is a generalization, as I know many school transportation operators go above and beyond with safety training and safety equipment investment. Still, many others do not.
States have their own requirements, and they are all over the map. California has the highest minimum standard for crossing elementary school students to and from bus stops, for example. Meanwhile, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Entry Level Driver Training requirement is an effort to raise the minimum standard in every state. Having said that, ELDT simply lists subjects that are to be taught. It does not detail how or to what extent the subjects are to be taught. You can still comply with ELDT but provide minimum training.
What does world-class safety look like? What industry standards are we trying to meet that go beyond the state requirements? We have the National Congress on School Transportation, which will be held every four years starting in 2029. But a lot can change in four years. Plus, it also outlines minimum standards, and most states don’t adopt it in its entirety.
As Senior Editor Taylor Ekbatani reports in this month’s issue, uniformity is key when addressing safety. She writes that laws on when oncoming vehicles stop for a school bus can differ based on divided and undivided roads.
When you compare your first day of the school year to today, is there an improvement in performance, optimization and a reduction in stress? Have any crashes or other safety incidents occurred? School buses have been rolling for many months. As we inch closer to summer, the topic of safety must remain top of mind.
At the end of March, a major crash in Tennessee that resulted in two student fatalities and a half-dozen injuries drew much attention to school bus safety. A lawsuit claims the driver didn’t receive the proper training and the school bus lacked safety technology like seatbelts. The state and federal investigation was ongoing at press time.
Statistically, the school bus is by far the safest way for students to travel to and from school. Still, over the past six school years, at least 62 students were killed in or around school buses or stops, according to STN research.
Six, including the recent Tennessee victims, were passengers in crashes. One choked to death in her wheelchair. Another fell off the wheelchair lift. The rest were hit by the bus in the danger zone, crossing the street as pedestrians, by a passing vehicle, or were shot or beaten to death.
There is no or limited accounting for injuries and other student pedestrians killed or injured around school buses. So, how do we improve safety on and around the school bus? I recommend starting with the parents as they have a vested interest in their child’s safety. The burden of school bus safety can’t fall solely on school transportation and the school bus driver.
Jeff Cassell of the School Bus Safety Company shared recommendations to help mitigate potential tragedy around the school bus. He suggested reducing student crossing as much as possible, teaching the students safe crossing procedures, informing parents of those procedures, ensuring school bus drivers enforce the correct crossing procedures, and installing extended stop arms to make sure passing vehicles stop.
“Safety means you continually do all you can to remove or reduce risk. The required behaviors that remove or reduce risk are a function on the location leadership,” he added. “World-class safety is where an organization follows the safest best practices in every area of their operations. They use the leading practices, processes and training systems to integrate these best practices into every facet of the organization, always, with a structured plan to do so.”
Striving for world-class safety should always be the goal. Keep reinforcing safe behaviors around the school bus with your school bus drivers, kids and parents. As an industry, being 100-percent safe all the time isn’t easy. But removing risk from operations that saves a child’s life is well worth the effort.
A 7-year-old boy died after being struck by a school bus moments after exiting his vehicle in Gloucester County, New Jersey.
According to a news release from the Greenwich Township Police Department, officers responded around 3:40 p.m. May 8 to reports of a “pedestrian motor vehicle crash involving a juvenile and a school bus.”
When officers arrived at the scene, they joined nearby residents in administering emergency medical aid to the child before Gloucester County Emergency Medical Services took over treatment efforts. The boy was transported to Cooper University Hospital, where he later died from his injuries, police said.
Authorities later identified the child as Hunter Smith of Gibbstown. Investigators said they believe the crash happened shortly after the boy exited the school bus. The incident stunned residents in the neighborhood, as emergency lights filled the streets while first responders worked to save the child.
“I heard the police and ambulance and all that stuff,” one neighbor told local news reporters. “I thought it was down the street. Then I come and look out here and, next thing you know, the whole neighborhood’s crawling with red lights and blue lights.”
The neighbor said he frequently saw the boy walking to and from the bus stop. “I see the kid walking up, down the street every day, either going to school or coming from school or to the bus stop,” he said. “It’s tragic, it’s devastating for the family. May God rest his soul.”
Investigation Underway As Video Shows Horrific Aftermath of Incident
Video captured by a Ring doorbell camera and obtained by a local news outlet showed a frantic aftermath moments after the collision. In the footage, a woman can be seen rushing to a nearby home and pleading for help while the school bus remained stopped in the roadway. Several residents gathered around the Smith in an attempt to assist before emergency crews arrived.
The bus involved in the incident was operated by Holcomb Transportation. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to local reporters that the bus driver is a 48-year-old woman who has worked for Holcomb Transportation since 2024 and had no prior issues.
In a statement via local news, Holcomb Transportation said it is “heartbroken” and “deeply concerned” over the tragedy.
“We are fully cooperating with all relevant authorities as they work to determine the circumstances surrounding this incident,” Frank Patrinicola, the company’s director of safety and risk, said in part. “In addition to the official investigation, we have launched our own internal review to understand exactly what happened and to ensure that every appropriate measure is taken moving forward.”
Officials have not released additional details about how the crash occurred or whether any charges are being considered. The incident remains under investigation. In the wake of the tragedy, community organizations and local officials began offering support to grieving residents and students.
A representative from Clonmell United Methodist Church announced it would open Saturday for residents impacted by the incident, according to the police department’s release. The Greenwich Township School District in New Jersey also said counseling services would be available for students.
According to data compiled by School Transportation News, at least eight student fatalities tied to school transportation incidents have occurred during the current 2025–2026 school year, including six pedestrian deaths in which students were struck by school buses. STN research also identified that at least 18 students died in school transportation-related incidents during the 2024–2025 school year. Of those cases, at least eight involved students who were struck and killed by a school bus.
This article was produced by the nonprofit journalism publication Bolts, which covers the nuts and bolts of power and political change, from the local up.
The Dane County Sheriff’s Office will stop using dozens of AI surveillance cameras posted up across Madison and surrounding towns, after the county Board of Supervisors pulled funding from a contract with Flock Safety, the latest setback in this state for the Atlanta-based tech company.
Flock has swiftly grown a sprawling, nationwide network of cameras that photograph passing cars and use AI to track their movements with precision, with thousands of law enforcement agencies installing Flock cameras in exchange for access to the company’s database. But many local governments are nowbreakingoff their agreements with Flock after numerous instances where the cameras were misused and breached, or where the data they collected ended up in ICE’s hands.
Within Dane County, the cascade started when the city of Verona pulled its three automated license plate readers from the Flock network in November, after police officers elsewhere in the country accessed Verona’s cameras on behalf of immigration agents. Bolts previously reported that Flock ignored demands by Verona officials to take down the cameras for months after they ended the contract, and the city eventually covered the surveillance cameras with black plastic bags to protect residents’ privacy. Verona Mayor Luke Diaz told Bolts at the time that the county government’s contract with Flock was “the next big domino” to fall in Wisconsin.
Verona’s representative on the Dane County Board, Supervisor Chad Kemp, then proposed defunding the sheriff’s agreement with Flock, and the board voted 32-1 in April to strip $80,000 from the budget allocated to paying for the cameras. Sheriff Kalvin Barrett’s office confirmed to Bolts via email on April 30 that he will abide by the board’s wishes and cease using Flock.
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett contracted with the tech surveillance company Flock Safety without the approval of the county board. His office says it’s considering alternatives to Flock after the county board pulled funding. He is shown at the Wisconsin State Capitol during a May 21, 2021, meeting of the Speaker’s Task Force on Racial Disparities Subcommittee on Law Enforcement Policies and Standards. (Will Cioci / Wisconsin Watch)
Other Wisconsin cities have dropped their Flock contracts since Dane County’s vote, including Monona, a suburb of Madison, and Oshkosh, in Winnebago County, where the police chief not just ended the contract but also covered cameras in plastic bags after Flock allegedly misrepresented how its data was used.
Diaz is heartened by this ongoing domino effect that’s rocking Wisconsin. “If police chiefs are bailing on it, that really shows momentum,” he saidin a follow-up interview this month. “I feel like, at least politically, it is a sign that we’re winning.”
“It really shows that local activists can make a really big difference,” he said. “Small communities can be laboratories of democracy, and we can stand up to be an example for other communities.”
Now privacy activists are pushing to remove Wisconsin’s remaining Flock cameras, including those operated by the Milwaukee Police Department and by the University of Wisconsin-Madison police.
But beyond targeting any specific Flock contract, they’re also pressuring local officials across the state to set proactive guardrails around AI surveillance technologies.
They hope to stop law enforcement agencies from responding to their wins against Flock by just turning to Flock’s competitors to install similar systems of automated license plate readers (ALPRs).
A spokesperson for the Dane County Sheriff’s Office told Bolts that the office is already exploring other vendors to replace Flock.
Law enforcement agencies often deploy invasive technologies like ALPRs without notifying the people being spied on and without approval from elected officials, said Jon McCray-Jones, a policy analyst with the ACLU of Wisconsin. He warns that, without robust protections limiting what police can do, residents will be “playing a game of Whack-A-Mole with surveillance companies” as police seek lesser-known companies like Motorola.
“We’re starting to miss the forest for the trees, where the conversation has been about how bad Flock is,” McCray-Jones told Bolts. “Sure, the headline changes with a slightly better company. But the innate issues around ALPRs don’t. You still have similar cameras, similar databases, similar mass, warrantless tracking. You just have a different logo on the contract.”
The Dane County sheriff was able to install the Flock system initially without getting approval from the board since it was paid for by a $68,750 grant funded by a separate surveillance company, Axon Enterprise. Axon used to have a partnership with Flock but has since severed it. The sheriff’s spokesperson ruled out seeking outside funding again.
Jade, a Madison resident and privacy advocate who created Deflock Dane, a project that maps the cameras that watch over the area, warns that a new technology could just as easily be installed to replace the Flock cameras without any public input. (Jade agreed to talk using only their first name for privacy concerns.)
“Some regulation has to be put in place,” Jade said. “Reacting to whatever secretive contract is signed in the future might work, but it is not ideal to have a revolving door of surveillance companies.”
A Flock Safety camera is aimed toward traffic traveling near a gas station, April 15, 2026, in Stoughton, Wis. (Angela Major / WPR)
In the absence of state restrictions, the ACLU of Wisconsin is advocating for local governments to adopt ordinances that give elected officials oversight over police surveillance. A model policy endorsed by the ACLU called Community Control Over Police Surveillance, or CCOPS, would require law enforcement to get approval from a city council or county commission before using new surveillance tools, as well as develop use policies and provide annual reports on them.
According to the ACLU, 26 jurisdictions nationwide already have a CCOPS ordinance in place, but the city of Madison is the only one in Wisconsin. (Madison police currently have no ALPR contract.) Dane County has no such ordinance, which gives the sheriff a lot more discretion.
Supporters say CCOPS ordinances allow cities to better vet the vendors that are hired, while also allowing residents to weigh in on what level of surveillance and risk they are willing to accept before the technology is used on them. McCray-Jones says elected officials can make informed decisions “instead of having to look into these technologies on their own and after the fact, in the aftermath when the damage is already done.”
But efforts to curtail AI surveillance in this way are hitting a wall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s most populous city, which became a cautionary tale for Flock when a police officer repeatedly used the cameras to stalk a romantic partner. The police chief quickly revoked most officers’ access but the city is continuing to use Flock cameras at this time.
In March, four members of the common council wrote a letter calling on the city to adopt a CCOPS policy. They also demanded other checks on surveillance, such as a requirement for officers to list a case number to justify searching the network, routine civilian hearings and independent audits, and a ban on ALPRs being used for immigration.
Even as they push for stronger oversight, though, a 2023 state law known as Act 12 has sharply limited Milwaukee’s ability to regulate police surveillance.
Though primarily a tax bill aimed at stabilizing pension debts, Act 12 forced Milwaukee to abandon civilian oversight in exchange for the funds. It stripped the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission of its oversight authority, gave the police chief broad control over department policy and restricted the city council’s ability to set new rules.
Until then, the commission had offered a relatively strong model of civilian control, like when it banned officers from using chokeholds and no-knock warrants, putting it in the crosshairs of the local police union. Act 12 made it into a “rubber stamp” for the police.
Attendees protest facial recognition technology during the Feb. 5, 2026, meeting of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission. (Devin Blake / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
Several council members told Bolts that Act 12 also interferes with their ability to forbid the Milwaukee Police Department from using Flock cameras, enact a CCOPS policy or set standards for how the city uses surveillance technology.
“We cannot propose that law here,” said Ald. Alex Brower, who cosigned the letter endorsing CCOPS. “It was extremely frustrating to find that out. There is less democratic control than there should be.”
Another council member who signed the letter, Sharlen Moore, echoed Brower’s concern, saying, “We do not have a lot of power and say-so around how they spend their budget.”
Moore and Brower are hopeful that the state could eventually restore some level of outside control over Milwaukee police; voters this fall are electing a new governor and Legislature, and Democrats hope to win control of the state government for the first time since 2010. But until the state takes action, the council members say they’ll have to rely on the police to voluntarily restrict their use of surveillance.
Brower told Bolts, “The police chief would not have banned facial recognition technology on his own if it hadn’t been for the groundswell of regular people.”
Now he hopes for a similar public outcry against ALPRs and other AI surveillance. Echoing the Madison-based advocates who say they’ll keep fighting contracts in Dane County, he said, “We need an active and engaged and organized population that is fighting for their liberties.”
As I continue examining pupil transportation systems around the world, one consistent theme is clear. Italy, like in many other countries we have looked at so far, has an approach vastly different from the American model centered around the iconic yellow school bus.
In the U.S., pupil transportation is highly standardized, centralized and built around dedicated fleets of school buses. In Italy, however, the system is far more decentralized and varied, relying on a mix of municipal services, public transportation, walking, family transport, and in some cases even taxis. It is not uncommon, particularly in certain regions or unique circumstances, for students to utilize taxi services as a means of getting to and from school. This diversity of options highlights a fundamentally different philosophy—one that emphasizes flexibility and integration rather than uniformity.
Italian pupil transportation is not governed by a single national model. Instead, it is managed at the municipal level, meaning each city or town determines whether transportation services are provided, who qualifies and how those services operate. This creates significant variation across the country. In some communities, particularly smaller or rural municipalities, there are dedicated school transport services known as scuolabus. These are typically smaller buses or vans that provide limited routes for students who live farther from school. While these services resemble the American model in function, they are far less standardized and operate on a much smaller scale.
In contrast, many students in urban areas rely heavily on public transportation systems. Buses, trams and regional trains are commonly used by students traveling to and from school. What stands out to me is the level of independence expected of students. It is not uncommon for younger students to navigate these systems on their own, something that would raise significant concern in many parts of the U.S.. In Italy, however, this independence is culturally accepted and supported by the structure of communities and public transit systems.
Walking is also a primary mode of transportation, particularly in densely populated towns and historic city centers where schools are located within close proximity to residential areas. Families may also transport students by car, scooter or bicycle, but the reliance on large-scale, dedicated school bus fleets is minimal compared to the U.S.
A Cacciamali Thesi/Iveco school bus in Rimini, Italy. (Mattia Bartoli/it.wikipedia to Commons.)
U.S., Italy Differ in More Ways
From a safety and security perspective, the differences are equally striking. The U.S. has developed a highly controlled environment around pupil transportation, with strict regulations, specialized vehicles and clearly defined safety procedures such as stop arms, compartmentalization and driver training standards. In Italy, safety is governed more broadly through general traffic laws and community norms rather than a dedicated, uniform system. While some scuolabus routes may include adult monitors for younger children, there is not the same level of standardized supervision or protection that we see in U.S. school transportation.
Cost is another distinguishing factor. In many parts of the U.S., pupil transportation is largely provided at no direct cost to families as part of public education. In Italy, transportation services are often partially subsidized, and families may be required to pay fees depending on the municipality and level of service. Discounts are sometimes available, but the system reflects a shared responsibility between local government and families.
As I reflect on these differences, it is clear that each system is built around its own cultural, geographic and operational realities. The U.S. prioritizes standardization, safety controls and centralized management, while Italy emphasizes flexibility, independence and integration with existing infrastructure. Neither system is inherently right or wrong—each simply reflects different priorities and risk tolerances.
However, from a professional safety and security standpoint, the comparison raises important considerations. The U.S. model provides a higher degree of controlled safety, particularly in managing risk during loading, unloading and transit. Italy’s model, while efficient and cost-effective, places greater responsibility on students and families and relies more heavily on environmental awareness and community structure.
Ultimately, studying systems like Italy’s reinforces the important principle that pupil transportation is not just about moving students from point A to point B. It reflects how a society balances safety, efficiency, costs, independence and responsibility.
As we continue to evaluate and improve our own systems, there is value in understanding how other countries approach the same challenge. Within those differences are insights that can inform better decision-making at home.
Bret Brooks
Bret E. Brooks is the chief operating officer for Gray Ram Tactical, LLC, a Missouri-based international consulting and training firm specializing in transportation safety and security. He is a keynote speaker, author of multiple books and articles and has trained audiences around the world. Bret also presents the online series, Third Thursday Training, to school districts across North America. He can be reached at BretBrooks@GrayRamTacticalTraining.com.
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