Illinois bus driver arrested after being caught on video drinking beer while driving elementary school students

An Illinois school bus driver was fired and arrested after surveillance videos caught her drinking from two beer cans while driving a group of school children.

According to the Aurora Police Department, Michelle Passley stopped at a gas station convenience store during her morning route on Nov. 15.

While at the store, Passley reportedly purchased two beers and then returned to the bus.

Footage provided by the Aurora Police Department shows Passley putting the beers into a brown bag and drinking from them. Thirty-two students were on the bus at the time.

“When we put our children on the school bus in the morning, the idea is that we have placed our kids in the safekeeping of someone who is going to take good care of them,” Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said Tuesday at a press conference.

“It’s infuriating to believe that someone who is trusted with these children on a daily basis could potentially put them in this kind of danger,” she added.

After seeing Passley get in the school bus with the beer, the convenience store worker who sold it to her called First Student Bus Company, which then called the police.

Passley was charged with two counts of endangering the life and health of a child. The Illinois secretary of state’s office is expected to review Passley’s commercial driver’s license, and she’s due in court Dec. 27.