TOMAHAWK, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – A Tomahawk bus driver who took kids back to the Tomahawk Bus Service’s bus barn instead of home faces 41 felony false imprisonment charges as well as a disorderly conduct charge.
According to court documents the bus driver, Debra Decker, 63, can be sentenced to six years for each false imprisonment charge. The 41 false imprisonment charges were for the 41 students on the bus. Decker has a plea/sentencing hearing Wednesday afternoon at Lincoln County Courthouse.
On Jan. 18, 2023, dispatch received a call from a child saying that the bus driver was driving erratically. Police then received a call the bus was back at Tomahawk Bus Service and when law enforcement arrived the bus service manager was standing in the bus and some students were getting off the bus, according to the criminal complaint. When asked by police what happened, the manager said the “driver just lost her cool and she was going to get fired,” the complaint said.
The complaint also said: Decker felt the children were being loud and not listening to her, so she turned the music up on the bus to give them a “piece of their own medicine.” When asked to turn the music down she ignored them and later asked them how it felt to ask for something and be ignored.
A parent who arrived at the bus yard said other kids were opening the window asking him not to leave. The parent remained by the bus and called police.
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