PANAMA CITY — The driver of a county school bus has been suspended after a 12-year-old boy found the keys in the parked bus and took it on a joy ride, school officials said Wednesday.
Bay District Schools Superintendent Bill Husfelt said the actual driver, 28-year-old Brandon Curtis, has been suspended for two weeks after bus 746 was taken from the driver’s Maine Avenue home in Parker early Tuesday morning. Michael Wade Propst, 12, was found driving the bus at about 5 a.m. more than 14 miles away in a Panama City Beach Wal-Mart parking lot at 10270 Front Beach Road.
No collisions or injuries have been linked to the incident.
Curtis admitted to leaving the keys in the ignition and the bus parked in a place susceptible to theft, Husfelt said. More severe disciplinary action was not taken mostly because of Curtis’ clean employee record, he added.
Curtis “has not had any other disciplinary actions in the past and he admitted he made a mistake,” Husfelt said. “We’re all just very grateful the student wasn’t hurt and no one else was hurt. This has been a valuable lesson in securing our buses.”
Propst made the trek along U.S. Business 98 and over the Hathaway Bridge without tipping off law enforcement along the way. Despite his apparently graceful driving, Propst faces serious charges, authorities said.
He has been charged with grand theft of an item worth more than $100,000 and felony criminal mischief. He also is charged with grand theft for a missing student recognition device worth about $2,000, and officers could be looking into other charges against the juvenile.
Though the youngster told deputies he did not remember hitting anything, BCSO is investigating an 8-foot-long scrape of white paint transferred onto the right side of the bus. BCSO officials have not determined the paint’s origin.