EDMONDS, Wash. — Edmonds School District officials are investigating a parent complaint after students reported smelling a strong odor of vapor from an e-cigarette onboard a school bus.
Brier Elementary School sixth grade student Austin Davis complained to his mother weeks ago about the strong-smelling habits of his school bus driver.
“(The driver) is a really cool guy, except for the smoking on board the bus,” Davis said.
Davis said for the last three weeks he has been boarding his bus into what he describes as a “fog” of sweet-smelling vapor.
“Oh my gosh,” he said, “It's almost like walking into a cupcake bakery."
Davis said he wasn't shy about asking the driver questions.
"I asked him, 'What's with all the smoke',” Davis said. “He said 'Oh, it's the heater'."
Davis’ mother, Lisa, said she first heard her son talking about the odor about two weeks ago.
“He likes to sit in the front of the bus. Always has. And so he's right behind the bus driver and when he got on the bus, he said the bus was full of smoke."
Lisa Davis said she complained to the principal of his son's school, and to the Edmond School District’s transportation manager.
“He told me they can't be responsible for their employees' poor choices, and they don't have enough staff to keep an eye on all their bus drivers,” Davis said.
The Edmonds School District told KIRO 7 it is investigating the reports and the driver.
“I want to emphasize that now that it has been brought to our attention, we are going to--as we already are, taking this very seriously," said Debbie Joyce Jakala of the Edmonds School District. “We will look into each step to get to the bottom of what happened."
Jakala said buses are considered school property and the “no tobacco policy” refers to buses the same way is does in classrooms.
But Lisa Davis said she’s not impressed by the response after she made the report days ago.
“They should be enforcing their policies, they should be making it well known to those employees that they cannot be smoking on school buses,” she said. “I don't care if it's a pen, a cigarette, I don't care what it is."