POINT PLEASANT, WV (WOWK) — 13 News spoke with parents Friday who had children riding the school bus when the substitute bus driver was pulled over for a traffic stop, which later resulted in her arrest.
53-year-old Leslie Watterson was arrested Thursday by West Virginia State Police and is being charged with driving under the influence along with 53 counts of gross child neglect by a custodian creating substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury.
This occurred on April 9, but the warrant and arrest was made May 23.
If convicted, Watterson is facing 1-5 years of prison time per charge, for a maximum of 265 years behind bars. According to the criminal complaint, a blood test was analyzed and showed that she had three drugs that affect the central nervous system in her system at the time of the traffic stop, Phentermine, Oxazepam and Temazepam.
The criminal complaint also said that law enforcement who conducted the traffic stop noticed Watterson was speaking excitedly, had dry mouth and was slurring her words, all signs of recent drug use.
The parents of the children riding on the school bus when Watterson was pulled over spoke to a 13 News reporter.
Bessie Crawford, a Point Pleasant mother who had 3 children on the school bus at the time of the traffic stop, said that she would like to see more regular drug testing for school bus drivers.
“It makes me angry. I just figure that you send your children to school with the teachers and the bus drivers and you expect nothing like this to happen. Maybe they need more consequences, and more testing so something like this won’t happen in the future. Like, test once a month to prevent stuff like this from happening,” Crawford said.
Danielle Smith had 4 of her children on the school bus when Watterson was pulled over, and she said that she plans to take legal action against the Mason County School District following the incident.
“That put our kids at harm. The school board is supposed to protect our kids. When we send them to school, we should be assured that our kids are safe and are going to get home safe. We shouldn’t have to worry about our kids being harmed,” Smith said.
Watterson is being held at Western Regional Jail, with a bond of $225,000. No date for a preliminary trial has been set as of now.