A Rhea County school bus driver has been fired after being charged with DUI this morning while driving his route.

The Rhea County Sheriff’s Department confirmed its dispatch center received a call from the Rhea County Schools Transportation Department approximately 7:30 EST this morning. Acting on complaint calls from parents of several children on Bus 41, they requested a welfare check on the driver.

Transportation Supervisor Ronnie Holloway meanwhile radioed the bus and ordered driver Michael Wayne Ledbetter to pull over.

Ledbetter stopped on U.S. 27, just north of Rhea Medical Center.

Rhea County Sheriff’s Detective Rocky Potter said a number of students on the bus had texted their parents to say the driver was driving erratically. Several of the parents were reportedly “shocked” when they got text messages from their kids that said, “the bus driver is drunk.”

When sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene, they claimed Ledbetter had an odor of intoxicants about him. They administered a series of field sobriety tests, which they say Ledbetter failed.

Ledbetter also agreed to submit to blood alcohol/drug screen tests.

Sometime after 10 a.m., he was booked into the Rhea County Jail. Ledbetter was charged with driving under the influence with a child under 18, felony reckless endangerment and possession of drug paraphernalia.

A recorded message from Rhea County School Superintendent Jerry Levengood indicated Ledbetter, who was hired in December 2017, was immediately fired.