Proper Response
TACTICAL TRAINING FOR BUS DRIVERS INCREASES STUDENT SECURITY
WRITTEN BY ART GISSENDANER
Avenue 21 in Chowchil- la, Calif., the unthinkable happened. Tree armed men with pantyhose stretched over their faces hijacked a school bus and kidnapped the driver and 26 students, ranging in age from 5 to 14. Te nation was stunned and the landscape of student transportation was changed forever. Te hostages eventual-
A 42 School Transportation News January 2013
ly were deposited in the back of a truck that was buried in a quarry. Te hijacking was the culmi-
t 4:15 p.m. July 15, 1976, on
nation of 18 months of planning. Te goal was to ransom the students for $5 million. News reports, how-
ever, say the Chowchilla Police Department was swamped with so many calls that the kidnappers couldn’t get through with their ransom demands. So, while the kidnappers were napping, Frank Edward “Ed” Ray, the driver, and the two oldest children stacked mattresses that were in the truck high enough to escape through the roof. Te kidnappers were apprehended and later
received life sentences. Ray was proclaimed a hero, even though he initially pulled the bus over when he saw what appeared to be a disabled van in the road. Ray died in May 2012 at age 91. One of the kidnappers was finally paroled in June 2012 after receiving unprecedented support from the investigators, prosecutors and the pre- siding judge in the case. Although there has not
been a recurrence on U.S. soil, many transportation directors have Chow- chilla and other potential terrorist threats in the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56