School Bus Driver Held on Sex Charge

A driver for Laidlaw Transit has been arrested on charges of having sex with a 15-year-old, hearing-impaired Burbank girl he drove to junior high school, authorities said.

Manny G. Acosta, 33, of North Hollywood, pleaded not guilty Friday to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, a felony, and was being held in the Burbank jail on $8,000 bail.

The arrest, coupled with other recent problems involving drivers of Laidlaw Transit Inc., the largest school bus company in the state, has prompted Burbank Unified School District officials to consider discontinuing use of the company.

Two Laidlaw drivers were arrested in Southern California earlier this year for driving buses while allegedly drunk. A third driver was arrested for carrying a gun on a bus. And in 1989, two school districts in the Santa Clarita Valley refused to renew contracts with Laidlaw, citing poor service and other problems, including an incident where a driver was fired after having sex with a high school freshman girl.

“We are aware of the problems Laidlaw has had,” said Timothy Crowner, spokesman for the Burbank district. “We are going to look very carefully at this incident and our relationship with Laidlaw. We will look very carefully at whether we want to continue with them.”

Crowner said school district officials will also look into whether it is feasible to place a school aide on buses carrying students. The district pays Laidlaw an estimated $30,000 a month to transport handicapped children to out-of-district school programs, he said. The company is also used occasionally for field trips and athletic events.

Burbank Police Lt. Art Moody said Acosta drove a bus that took hearing-impaired Burbank students to Toll Junior High School in Glendale for special education programs. About two months ago, the bus driver allegedly began a romantic relationship with one of the student passengers, Moody said.

Police were contacted by school officials Monday after they learned of the alleged relationship when one of the girl’s friends told a counselor.

“She began to go to Toll in February and shortly after, she fell in love with him,” Moody said of the relationship between the girl and Acosta. “He was the bus driver who took her over there and back every day. She was in love with him and he thought she was a nice girl. There is no (forcible) rape involved, but she is 15 and he is 33.”

Moody said Acosta and the girl engaged in sex in his van, not in the bus or on school property. He said Acosta has denied any impropriety with the girl. He was arrested Wednesday at Toll after dropping students off.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Powers said the girl has cooperated in the investigation and told investigators of one incident in which she and Acosta engaged in consensual sexual relations.

Acosta was suspended from his job by Laidlaw after his arrest.

“He has been a good employee,” said Chris Hazen, director of safety and personnel for Laidlaw in Southern California. “He has been with us two years--no accidents, no disciplinary actions. We never had a problem with him.”

Powers said Acosta has no felony convictions on his record. According to state Department of Motor Vehicles records, Acosta has a valid driver’s license and school bus driver certification. He was ticketed in 1987 for improper passing, the records show.

Laidlaw is the U.S. subsidiary of a Canadian company and operates routes for school districts throughout California and 15 other states. The company employs about 2,500 drivers in Southern California, Hazen said.

Bud Dunevant, director of transportation for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said Laidlaw handles a quarter of that huge district’s bus routes and is the largest of six contractors used by the system. He said the district maintains tight control over the contractors and requires drivers to have twice the state minimum of 40 hours of training.

Because of driver shortages, Laidlaw paid the district more than $1 million in damages last year for not being able to comply with its contract, Dunevant said. All the district’s bus contractors have problems hiring enough drivers.

Dunevant described the incident resulting in the charge against Acosta as “not a highly unusual problem in school bus transportation.”

However, he said, relationships between drivers and students most often occur with younger drivers. “Young (drivers) who start are warned to stay away from the students,” he said.

Times education writer Sandy Banks contributed to this story.