(Iowa Capital Dispatch Article)
(Clayton County) Clayton County school district has fired a bus driver accused of repeatedly driving while using his cellphone.
State records indicate Donald Schneider worked for the Clayton Ridge Community School District as a bus driver until March 10, 2026, when he was placed on administrative leave. A month later, he was fired.
According to the findings of a judge who presided over Schneider’s subsequent hearing seeking unemployment benefits, Schneider began working for the district as a bus driver on Sept. 1, 2022.
On March 10, 2026, Schneider reported an incident of some type that had occurred on the bus, triggering a district review of security-camera video from the bus. During the review, district officials allegedly noticed Schneider was using his cellphone while driving the bus in violation of district policy and state law.
As a result, the district allegedly reviewed additional videos from the bus that showed what the judge later called “substantial, frequent and egregious use” of the cellphone while driving.
In one instance, Schneider was allegedly holding the cellphone with both hands while driving students at night.
According to district officials, when Schneider was questioned, he acknowledged using his cellphone inappropriately and indicated he knew it was illegal to use the phone while driving. In April 2026, the school board fired Schneider.
In her recent decision denying Schneider’s application for unemployment benefits, Administrative Law Judge Rebecca Stonawski ruled that Schneider “was not simply careless. The numerous days of phone use while driving indicates (he) was knowingly and recklessly using his phone while driving school children. This was against Iowa law and was negligent. His conduct was recurrent in nature, indicating a deliberate disregard of the employer’s interests as well as for the school children on his bus.”
The Iowa Capital Dispatch was not able to reach Schneider for comment.
In her decision, Stonawski noted the Clayton Ridge Community School District “previously had driving incidents resulting in the loss of student life,” although she did not elaborate.
Court records show that in 2016, district bus driver Charlotte A. Scherer was ticketed for making an illegal turn that caused a fatal crash. Scherer was driving the school bus north on Great River Road when she turned left into the path of a southbound motorcycle driven by Ronald Kephart, who later died of injuries from the crash. None of the seven students who were on the bus at the time of the collision were injured.
Prosecutors later dismissed the citation, telling the court Scherer had complied with an agreement that the charge would be dismissed “if no further offenses were committed” over a 12-month period. Kephart’s estate later sued the school district, resulting in a judgment against the district for $1.2 million plus interest.
