Former Pardeeville school bus driver charged with inappropriately touching students\, complaint says

Motors plant.

Thanks for joining us tonight... a pardeeville man is being charged with sexually assaulting girls while working as a bus driver for the village's school district.

Jamie perez spoke with the district's superintendent this afternoon who said he had no idea this was going on until he read about it in the paper.

74 year old gary edwards is facing two counts of first degree sexual assault.

In may 2017, an 11 year old girl told a columbia county deputy that edwards touched her on the butt and is always trying to hug girls on the bus.

Fast forward to january of this year... two more girls reported edwards to the sheriff's department saying he put his arms around their stomachs, let them sit in his lap, and placed his hands around their private areas.

According to the criminal complaint, edwards told detectives its possible he may have done so as they were getting out of his seat and his hands were around their waist if his hands slipped.

Columbia county sheriff's were not available to give an on camera statement today, but we did speak with the superintendent about this.

He said this is all news to him.

" 9:52 we had no idea there was an investigation going on, we had no idea there were arrests made.

I mean, what would we tell parents?

I had nothing to tell them until i read the paper this morning 10:03" superintendent gus knitt said he heard about the 2017 incident from the principal at the elementary school, but nothing came of it.

"6:39 a mother complained in 2017 about a situation.

We referred that to the sheriff's department, they investigated it, and said there was no basis to the complaint.6:56 " edwards would remain employed by smith's bus service... the company the school contracts with.

"3:55 we expressed our concern to smith's bus about things we had heard and within a day or so after that, the driver was no longer driving."

4:06 edwards reportedly retired back in december.

Then in january of this year, new allegations emerged.

Knitt said when they asked the girls who filed the new complaints what happened.... 3:32: my elementary principal investigated, she talked to two girls whose names surfaced in this.

They told us nothing had been going on 3:42 knitt said it wasn't until he saw edwards mug shot in the news that he heard the full story... smith's bus service declined to comment on this, but knitt said it's his goal to work with the company to find out more about why edwards was still employed after several allegations surfaced.

"the safety of our students is our number one concern" edwards is scheduled for this edwards is scheduled for this next court hearing june 25.

If convicted, he faces a maximum