School Bus Driver Blames Dangerous Driving and DWI Arrest on Spoiled Donut

Donuts at the New York City Wine & Food Festival at Pier 92 Rooftop in New York City on Oct. 15, 2017. Cindy Ord/Getty Images for NYCWFF

A school bus driver in Texas arrested for DWI said she wasn’t drunk, she just ate a bad donut.

“I got something from the school to eat, and it had made me sick,” said 55-year-old Linda Godejohn, via KPRC.

She was then asked by a throng of reporters what food she was referring to.

“A donut. A donut,” Godejohn replied.

Godejohn failed a field sobriety test, KPRC reported. Authorities are still awaiting the results of a blood draw. She was pulled over on May 30 after driving her school bus erratically.

“My stomach was just hurting so bad that my wheel fell off the thing, the curb,“ Godejohn said, via KPRC. ”That’s all it was. Going at 45 miles per hour, it’s going to whip back.”

Although she is charged with driving while intoxicated, authorities want to steepen those charges due to the age of one of the children on the bus.

“We discovered that one of the children on the bus was under the age of 14, which triggers a higher charge, a felony charge, for DWI,” said Sean Teare, who works with the district attorney’s office, via KPRC.

A reporter asked Godejohn why she failed the field sobriety test.

“Because it’s hard. I couldn’t even do it right now,” said Godejohn, according to the news outlet.

She assured reporters that she was not drunk and has not had an alcoholic drink in years.

“She consented to a blood draw, so until we get the blood back we’re not going to know what the actual cause of her impairment was, but I’d rest assured it was not a donut,” Teare said.

Someone who witnessed the initial incident called authorities and said Godejohn’s bus was driving all over the road, and almost flipped over, with students inside, KPRC reported.

Students from Houston’s YES Prep public charter schools were in the bus.

“You’re entrusted to take car of others people ’s children, to shepherd them from school, back to their homes. And when you violate that trust, in my mind, that’s unexcusable,” Teare said, via KPRC.

Godejohn was arrested, but then released on May 31 on $100 bond, the New York Post reported. First Student Bus Company suspended Godejohn from driving pending the outcome of the investigation. Her next court date is scheduled for June 10.

“YES Prep Public Schools has learned that a contracted bus driver was pulled over for driving erratically and then taken into custody for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. If these allegations prove true, we are furious that this driver put our students in harm’s way,” YES Prep said in a statement obtained by KHOU 11.

“The bus driver is employed by First Student Bus Company – a bus vendor contracted by YES Prep – and is not a YES Prep employee. All of First Student Bus Company’s drivers undergo regular finger printing and rigorous background checks. If she is formally charged, she will never again be behind the wheel of a YES Prep-contracted bus,” the statement continued.

According to KHOU 11, several people called law enforcement upon seeing the bus driving erratically. A parent of a student at the school also followed the bus, made Godejohn stop driving, and waited with her for deputies to arrive.