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School bus driver charged, fired for incident with toy gun - abc27 WHTM

Dauphin County

School bus driver charged, fired for incident with toy gun

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By Myles Snyder - email
By Alexandria Hoff - bio | email
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -

A school bus driver, who's accused of holding up a toy gun and telling students it was for "the bad kids," has been charged by police and fired from his job.

Dauphin County Vocational School sophomore Tyler Kelsey was on that bus and said things changed from normal to scary very quickly on Monday's bus ride home. 

"I thought everything was going to be as usual then I heard a few students talking about a gun," he said.  "He passed my stop at the corner there and just drove right on down to an empty lot."

There, 73-year-old Ronald Jones was met by police, who realized Jones was carrying a fake Tommy gun. Jones has been charged with disorderly conduct, according to police in Lower Paxton and Susquehanna Townships. Police say that since the gun was fake, and their was no actual threat, Jones could not be charged with anything more serious. 

Jones has also been fired from Rohrer Bus Company.

Police say students were boarding the bus when they noticed the toy gun under the driver's seat. When questioned about it, police said Jones held up the fake gun and made a comment about it being for "the bad kids" to some of the students.

Students contacted authorities with cell phones as Jones began his route.

"Kids were screaming, texting, calling their parents, calling the police," said Kelsey. 

Susquehanna Township Superintendent Susan Kegerie said these students did the right thing.

 

"They were calm ... They used the[ir] phones. They alerted authorities right away whether it was real or whether it was not," Kegerie said. 

 

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