Fired Mercer County bus driver challenging Pa. school drugs law

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A fired school bus driver in Mercer County has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn a Pennsylvania law that bans people with drug convictions from working for public school districts or their contractors.

Forty-eight-year-old Terri McCloskey is suing because she lost her eight-year job with Frye Inc., a bus company that provides service to the Jamestown Area School District in, because of her 1986 drug conviction.

McCloskey's attorney says the law violates the single mother's civil rights because it automatically declares her to be unfit without considering her employment record. The bus company's owner, Jan Frye, wouldn't comment on the law but says McCloskey was a good employee.

Officials with the school district and state Department of Education declined comment on the suit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court, Pittsburgh.