Indiana authorities arrested a school bus driver after he allegedly he drove dozens of students while under the influence of alcohol, disregarded traffic laws and admitted to heavy drinking hours before his route, reported Fox 59.

According to the news report, 52-year-old Micah McClain was arrested on June 12 following an investigation into allegations that he operated a school bus for Mill Creek Community School Corporation on April 15 after consuming alcohol.

The investigation reportedly began after the school district conducted a routine quarterly drug and alcohol screening for bus drivers. According to court documents, McClain registered preliminary breath test results of 0.111 percent and 0.114 percent blood alcohol content, nearly three times higher than the allowable limit for commercial driver’s license holders.

Police said McClain, who worked primarily as a maintenance employee but also served as a substitute bus driver, transported 15 high school students on one route and 29 elementary school students on another.

Following the positive result, McClain reportedly told investigators he had “drank hard and heavy until 1 a.m.” before reporting to work.

Detectives reviewed school bus video that allegedly showed McClain running multiple stop signs, driving left of center, exceeding the speed limit and failing to use turn signals. At one point, after a student reportedly shouted, “This is the wrong way!” McClain responded, “Yeah, I know.” Later, as students questioned where the bus was going, he replied, “I am doing the best I can.”

The district said via the article that McClain was immediately removed from driving duties and later terminated. Families of students assigned to the route were notified the same day, and the district said it followed all required testing protocols.

Court documents reportedly indicate school transportation officials previously suspected McClain had reported to work under the influence. An employee allegedly noticed the odor of alcohol in October 2024, and officials said McClain had been barred from driving until the 2025-26 school year after agreeing to random breath tests.

McClain faces preliminary charges including neglect of a dependent, operating while intoxicated endangering a person younger than 18, criminal recklessness, speeding in a school zone, and other multiple traffic infractions.

STN EXPO West conference in Reno, Nevada offers a two-hour certificated seminar on reasonable suspicion testing of school bus drivers for drug and alcohol use on July 10.

Related: South Carolina School Bus Driver Charged with DUI While Transporting Students
Related: New York School Bus Driver Caught Drinking Alcohol While Driving
Related: Alcohol Detection Systems in School Buses Among Latest NTSB Recommendations
Related: West Virginia School Bus Driver Indicted For DUI

The post Former Indiana School Bus Driver Charged with Driving Students While Intoxicated appeared first on School Transportation News.

The Institute for Reforming Government, a conservative nonprofit, is suing the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction alleging that it violated open meetings law with a standards setting meeting two years ago and is requesting that state testing standards be voided. 

The lawsuit centers on a four-day testing standards-setting meeting held in June 2024 at Chula Vista, a water park resort in the Wisconsin Dells. The meeting brought together 88 educators and DPI staff to discuss and help set the new standards for the Forward Exam, the standardized test that Wisconsin third-graders through eighth-graders take each year.

Republican lawmakers and conservatives have scrutinized the agency over the cost of the meeting, nondisclosure agreements that participants signed and for being held behind closed doors. DPI has said that the cost of the work done related to the meeting was in line with typical costs, that NDAs were necessary because the test materials that were being reviewed would be used in live tests and that the meeting was not subject to open meetings laws.

IRG had first filed a complaint in Adams County in April. The Adams County district attorney did not file charges within 20 days, so the organization has turned to a lawsuit. It is being represented by the Wisconsin Transparency Project. 

IRG is asking that a judge declare that DPI violated the law and void any actions DPI took, including the adoption of new state testing standards, as a result of the recommendations made by those at the meeting.

Jake Curtis, general counsel at IRG, said in a statement that “the DA’s silence left us no choice but to pursue legal action — Wisconsin families deserve to know how and why decisions about their children’s education are being made behind closed doors.” 

“DPI cannot lower academic standards in secret and simply expect parents and students to accept the outcome. Taxpayers funded this process, but DPI shut them out,” Curtis said. 

Tom Kamenick, the president and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, said in a statement that a committee like the one organized by DPI has to follow state open meetings law.

“Compliance is not difficult. Put up a public notice and then tell people they are welcome to attend and see the work being done,” Kamenick said. “It’s a few simple steps.” 

Chris Bucher, spokesperson for DPI, said in an email that he could not comment in detail due to ongoing litigation, adding in a statement that “the DPI has openly and transparently participated in legislative hearings related to this matter, which the Republican co-chair of a legislative committee called ‘routine.’ However, more than two years after the fact, a special interest group with a well-documented political agenda continues to recycle unfounded accusations, diverting public resources and agency time away from the work that matters most: supporting Wisconsin students, educators and schools.”

DPI leaders previously told lawmakers that the meeting was not subject to open meetings law because it was conducted by the vendor it contracts with for the Forward Exam, Data Recognition Corporation (DRC). He said it is a private company not a governmental body subject to Wisconsin’s open meeting laws.

“DRC is not a government body. It is a private contractor in the same way that Microsoft is not a government body, Apple’s not a government body. People who do business with the Department of Public Instruction — those are contractors who perform a service for it,” Rich Judge, an assistant state superintendent, said when complaints first surfaced.

Four Republican members of Congress, including gubernatorial frontrunner Tom Tiffany, have introduced a bill that would exempt vehicles in southeast Wisconsin from federally mandated emissions testing. 

The bill was introduced by U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Janesville) and co-sponsored by Reps. Glenn Grothman, Scott Fitzgerald and Tiffany. Tiffany, the only member whose district does not include the affected area of Milwaukee, Kenosha, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Washington and Waukesha counties, also brought the issue up on the campaign trail late last month. 

Seven Wisconsin counties, including Milwaukee, are designated ozone nonattainment areas by the EPA under the Clean Air Act, which subjects vehicle owners in the area to additional regulations such as biennial emissions testing. Federal law allows a state to apply for the waiver if it can prove air pollution originates from out-of-state. 

The bill authors point to a Department of Natural Resources report that showed 10% of the ozone measured in the area comes from Wisconsin while more than a third of it comes across Lake Michigan from Illinois and Indiana. 

“Because of outdated federal rules, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin drivers in seven counties are forced to complete emissions tests every two years just to renew their registration,” Tiffany said in a statement. “Wisconsin families should not be punished with costly and time-consuming mandates because of pollution drifting in from Illinois and Indiana.”

Studies have shown the highest sources of ozone in the region come from the urban centers of Chicago and Milwaukee.