Bus Driver Hearing to Resume Thursday

An administrative hearing for a bus driver suspended by the East Hampton School District starts back up on Thursday.

The section 75 hearing for Christine Vorpahl – held in public at her choice – started up last week with two days of testimony, though close to a dozen witnesses still remain to be called. The number of witnesses the defense calls in return would depend on who the school district calls in, said Vorpahl's lawyer, Thomas Horn.

Horn, who represents another bus driver suspended by the district – Dawn Gallagher, whose hearing will start after Vorpahl's – and has represented several other civil service employees with cases in East Hampton over the past year, said on Wednesday that he believes the charges have been unclear up to this point.

Vorpahl is charged with bullying and intimidating some bus drivers, favoring others with overtime routes, providing false information in a certification application, knitting and surfing the Internet while at work, and ignoring requests to move a bus stop.

Kevin Seaman, the attorney representing the school district, noted in his opening statements, according to the East Hampton Star, that Vorphal contributed to a "Lord of the Flies, renegade colony" at the bus shelter.

Horn said no specifications had been made at last week's two days of hearings as to when or where most of the charges took place, and his client never held a supervisory role, making overtime distribution and bullying a challenge.

"Since she has no supervisory role – she is not being paid for a supervisory role – how can they allege she fostered a climate of intimidation?" he said.

Horn called the charges "vague and overblown" previously, and heading into Thursday's hearing, still believes that based on what he saw last week.

"They shouldn't be able to sustain these charges because they are vague. But because they are vague, how do I defend against that? They would only be overturned on appeal (if Vorphal is found guilty). And then what will all of this have been for?"