Terri McCloskey had a job she loved until a new law took it away.
The West Salem mother of two boys drove a school bus for the Jamestown Area School District for eight years. The hours allowed the single mother to be home when her sons were out of school but still provided the income she needed to buy a house.
Then the General Assembly decided that anyone with a felony drug conviction was banned for life from working either for a school district or a school district contractor – in McCloskey’s case, Frye Inc., a bus company.
http://liarcatchers.com/background_checks.html
McCloskey today filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that the law violates the state and U.S. constitutions. The lawsuit against the school district and the Department of Education seeks a permanent injunction against its enforcement.
McCloskey, 48, last drove her morning route on Jan. 5.
“By noon, my boss came and told me I could not drive anymore,” she said. “I was devastated.”
Her lawyer, Tim O’Brien, said the law and its implementation by the state Department of Education violates several of McCloskey’s civil rights including that of due process since it arbitrarily classifies her as unfit to be a school bus driver based solely on her 1986 conviction while ignoring her eight-year work record.
“A law that fires her for something that happened almost 30 years ago doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Shane Murray, the district superintendent, and Christopher Green, a spokesman for the department, declined comment.
The sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Todd Stephens, R-Montgomery County, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
At least four other lawsuits have been filed over the law including one in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, where Arthur Johnson of Brighton Heights is challenging the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s firing of him from a counseling position because of a 1983 felony conviction for voluntary manslaughter. The lawsuit argues that the conviction helps him establish a rapport with the young fathers he counsels, so it’s an asset rather a liability to his job.
An AIU spokeswoman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
