Alleged texting driver barred from operating buses

TRUMBULL, Conn. — Evelyn Guzman, who is accused of sending and receiving more than 1,000 text messages from April to May 2010 while operating a bus for special-needs students, has been permanently barred from driving a bus.

Guzman also received two years' probation and lost her driver's license for two years, the Trumbull Patch reports. She was sentenced to accelerated rehabilitation early last month, which means the charges will be dropped once she completes her probation.

(As SBF previously reported, Guzman was charged with risk of injury to a minor — a felony — and second degree reckless endangerment. She is free on a $1,500 bond.)

Kim Stagliano, the mother of one of the students who rode Guzman's bus, put out an online petition to prevent the charges against Guzman from being dropped. The petition gathered 1,103 signatures prior to the sentencing; however, after the hearing, Stagliano said the penalties against Guzman were "stiff," Trumbull Patch reports.

Guzman's texting was discovered during an investigation into the alleged abuse of Stagliano's daughter by Guzman's daughter, Jennifer Davila, a bus monitor. Davila pled guilty and was also given probation, but she was not given accelerated rehabilitation.

Guzman and Davila are no longer with the bus company they were employed by.