A bus driver accused of kidnapping three special needs students he was driving to the Newton Early Childhood Program was arraigned Friday and released on $1,000 bail.
On May 28, someone at the Early Childhood Program called Newton police about their contracted driver Justin Vose, 42, of Bedford, after learning he had disappeared with the kids before the kids arrived at the school.
Police checked the bus’s GPS history and saw that he had taken them to a secluded part of the Early Childhood Program parking lot, one at a time for about 20 minutes each. Police also found photos on Vose’s phone of the children.
“Every time that he was alone with a child, the audio and video on the bus itself would be disabled and he would stay alone on the bus with the children for a significant amount of time,” prosecutor Maria Schrader said during the arraignment.
It’s unclear what happened when he had the kids alone Schrader said, because audio and video monitoring were shut off and the children have difficulties with communication. One is completely nonverbal.
Vose has posted the $1,000 bail and must wear a GPS monitoring device while out on bail. He was also ordered not to have any contact with children.
Vose was a driver with JSC Transportation, which the school uses for Early Childhood Program transportation. He was not employed by the Newton Public Schools.
Attorney Wendy Murphy, representing one of the children’s families, appeared before the School Committee this week and urged the district to adopt more stringent contacting policies.
“The vast majority of people who harm children have no criminal records at all and are not on the sex offender registry,” Murphy said. “Ninety percent of adults who harm children are never arrested, much less prosecuted, convicted or placed on a sex offender registry.”