THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606150089
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Education
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 32 lines
Last week, Ethel Copeland was named Bus Driver of the Year by the transportation department of the Suffolk Public Schools.
``Boy, was I surprised,'' Copeland said, smiling with delight at winning the honor for the first time. Copeland, 53, has been driving a school bus for 19 years without a preventable accident. She currently drives a mini-bus for handicapped students on routes to Booker T. Washington Elementary School and to Lakeland High School.
Although Copeland's safety rules are necessarily a little different for her students, she still believes in the value of discipline. ``Children will take advantage of drivers who do not maintain discipline,'' she said.
Copeland is one of 114 bus drivers who take to the roads in Suffolk every day. Twenty of those drive buses for handicapped children.
The Driver of the Year award is given to one driver annually, said Dorothy Turner, transportation department secretary. The award is based on criteria including: safe driving practices; maintenance of records and schedules; rapport with parents, students and administrators; care of the bus; personal appearance; work attitude and the ability to react to adverse conditions. ``And we have a lot of adverse conditions, both with the weather and the children,'' Turner said. ILLUSTRATION: Ethel Copeland is Suffolk Schools' Bus Driver of the
Year. by CNB