Ridgefield Press
Children protest veteran bus driver's firing
Nov 22, 2005

Learning their free speech rights are these Farmingville schoolchildren: fourth graders Ryan Casolo, Jessica Hamilton, Jacqueline Keisling, Madeleine Masi and Heather Ogden, accompanied by first grader Nicole Hamilton and kindergartner Matt Masi. Their beloved bus driver, Marlene Buturla, had just lost her job, and the kids went to the Baumann bus depot to let people know what they thought. � Press photo by Locker McCarthy

�We want Marlene back! We want Marlene back!� shouted eight small sign-bearing protesters on the afternoon their beloved bus driver, Marlene Buturla, was told she would not again be driving Bus 13, the bus she had driven to and from Farmingville School for two decades.
She had been under suspension from driving after some accidents that never involved police reports, and last Friday she received her termination notice.
At first the contingent attempted to march on the headquarters of Baumann and Son�s Buses off South Street, but were shooed away, being told they were on private property. But Bill Hoff of the town�s highway department later affirmed that the whole bus depot area is town property.
They decamped for the South Street entrance to the depot, driven by mom leader Christa Hamilton, who was escorting two of her children, fourth grader Jessica and first grader Nicole. She said that, even before the Buturla firing, she had decided her children would not be lifelong Ridgefielders like both she and her mother. �We�re selling our house, � she said. �Ridgefield has changed too much.�
�They had fun carrying their signs,� Ms. Hamilton said on Friday evening. �But they were disappointed to find out Marlene wouldn�t be back. We didn�t tell them until after they had protested.�
According to Ms. Hamilton, �There were three �incidents,� I�d call them, in the last three months.� The first, she said, was �a bump� so minor that �even the bus company said she shouldn�t have reported it. But that�s Marlene � she�s an honest person.
�Then she hit a pole on Fire Hill Road � it�s actually in the road � and knocked mirrors off the bus. And then she was pulling up behind another bus and her foot slipped off the brake and she bumped the other bus.
�But nobody was hurt,� Ms. Hamilton continued. �They should have suspended her. They could�ve suspended her. Now she�s lost a job she has loved. And she�s the best. We love Marlene because we know our kids are going to be fine on her bus. I�ve known her for 11 years. She�s very firm, but children need rules because rules keep them safe. She assigned seats and the kids know where they�re going to sit every day. Now they have a driver who doesn�t assign seats and every day kids get off the bus crying because of something that happened, or from just being excluded. Kids may not like being assigned seats at first, but now our kids don�t have assigned seats and they want them.�
  Ms. Hamilton went on to say that, while she was appalled at Mr. Buturla�s firing, she agreed that three incidents in as many months was �a red flag.�
�She had her first accident ever and then another, and her sister had just died...,� said Ms. Hamilton. �So clearly she was distracted. But they could�ve suspended her � even without pay.
�What you do with someone who has given 20-plus years and is having trouble is try to help a good employee.
�And I know the Board of Education is going to slough this off on the bus company. But the right thing to do would�ve been to support her. She wasn�t selling alcohol or selling drugs. This is so Ridgefield.�
Sharon Scott, shop steward of Ms. Buturla�s union, AMJAT-USW, said that she could not comment beyond saying her union was appealing the firing. �But I really wish I could.� She said she did not know when the arbitration hearing would be held. �We put in our papers and now we wait,� she said.
Speaking for Baumann and Sons, supervisor Scott Cross said he wished not to comment on the situation. At press time, school board chairman Katherine Fischer had not returned phone calls.

� Copyright by Hersam Acorn newspapers