by ANDY SEVILLA
Hays school district officials say students were safe despite one of their school bus drivers being charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child.
David Michael Kelley, 31, was arrested and charged Dec. 8 with four counts of felony sexual assault of child, according to Hays County jail records.
“We have no complaints or reason to believe anything happened to any of our students, but if a student or former student has information otherwise, we urge those students (and parents) to promptly report the information to the Hays County Sheriff’s Office,” said Hays CISD spokesperson Tim Savoy.
Kelley was a school bus driver for Hays CISD, most recently running routes for Camino Real Elementary, Hays High School and Lehman High School, Savoy said.
Kelley resigned from the school district on Dec. 7, citing personal reasons, according to Savoy, and an arrest affidavit shows Kelley confessed, that same day, to authorities that he had for years had sexual contact with a child.
According to the arrest affidavit, Kelley told authorities he had been having sexual intercourse with the child “for a long time,” and he corroborated the child’s statement that he had sexual contact with the child one to two times per month.
Kelley began his employment as a bus driver with Hays CISD on July 22, 2010, a year after the reported sexual abuse of a child allegedly started.
Savoy said Kelley ran a bus route with “Barton students on board” for a short period of time in the beginning of his employment, before running routes with Camino Real Elementary and Hays and Lehman high schools.
“We don’t have any complaints, evidence, or reason to believe that anything happened with our students (beyond what he is already charged with if the victim is a Hays CISD student – not sure where the victim attended school),” Savoy said. “All of our busses have cameras on them and some have bus monitors that accompany the driver. Buses are also tracked using GPS so that our transportation administration can monitor route times, paths, speeds, stops and precise locations of all district buses at all times.”
Savoy said Kelley was never accused of anything while working at the district, nor are there any complaints or disciplinary action in his file.
Savoy said parents were not notified of Kelley’s arrest.
“Since the allegation against him is not connected in any way to his work at Hays CISD, we’re prepared to assist law enforcement with anything they may need from us, but the matter is not something in which we are included,” Savoy said. “Our protocol is to defer to law enforcement to tell us what they need, if anything, during a criminal investigation. We don’t want to do anything that would adversely affect their criminal case or the subsequent prosecution of a suspect.”
Jail records show Kelley remains in custody on a $400,000 bond.
