Cops: School bus driver showed kids porn on phone

Marcus Howard

A school bus driver has been arrested after police say he showed underage riders on the bus pornographic images on his cellphone.

Marcus Antonio Howard, 37, is a bus driver for Mowat Middle School in Lynn Haven, Fla., and allegedly displayed the adult material on several occasions in January and February before a police investigation led to his arrest earlier this week. Howard has also been indefinitely suspended without pay by the school board.

According to the News Herald, a concerned parent contacted the middle school after being told by their student about the pornography.

Sharon Michalik, executive director for human resources and employee support services, told the paper that as soon as they received the report about the incident, Howard was “relieved of his duty at that time” and that a “substitute bus driver [was brought in] that very afternoon.”

Mike Jones, the Bay District Schools chief of security, contacted Howard, who initially denied showing students pornography or having it on his cellphone. After he allowed investigators to look at his phone where they found pornography, he admitted to looking at the photos and videos while he was at work.

Howard maintains that he did “not let any of the children look at it intentionally but that he could not confirm or deny whether or not any of the minors “may have accidentally seen any of the material.”

Howard has been charged with four counts of showing obscene material to a minor.