WESTBROOK – New details have emerged about what led to the resignation of the Westbrook School Department’s transportation coordinator after just six months, including the department’s handling of a November incident involving a young student who became trapped in the doors of a bus.

Cindy Button said Monday that the child, who was exiting the bus, became trapped when the bus doors closed before the child was safely outside. The incident resulted in minor injuries.

“We had an incident, involving a child, that may not have happened if the driver had been using the (parking) brake,” she said. “That was devastating to me.”

Button said the incident was simply the “last straw” in what had been a tumultuous turn in Westbrook, which began when she was hired in June amid public objections from district bus drivers, who supported keeping the department’s two previous administrative assistants on board. Button’s resignation is effective on Dec. 31.

While Button declined to comment on the resulting discipline given to the bus driver, she said she knows what her procedure would have been had she been able to make that decision.

“It’s important that the public knows that you are acknowledging the mistake and are taking steps to assure that it doesn’t happen again,” she said.

Dean Flanigan, the Westbrook School Department’s director of operations, who supervises coordinators for transportation, maintenance and technology, said on Monday that following the incident, the department did a complete investigation and review, which lead to discipline of the driver. Flanigan said details of the discipline are confidential.

“We did training to review all of our safety procedures, particularly around loading and unloading of the buses,” he said. “Safety is our No. 1 concern.”

Flanigan added that parents of the child were notified of the steps taken.

“Certainly when you’re dealing with students, we want to make sure our drivers receive all of that training,” he said.

Button said the location of the bus brake means the driver must look in the direction of the bus stairs, and thus, if the driver had applied the brake, he or she would have seen the child trapped in the doors.

“That is something that is not OK with me,” she said.

She said that applying the brake while opening and closing bus doors is a requirement for drivers when they take their test for a commercial driver’s license needed to operate a bus.

Button said Monday that during her previous job as transportation director at School Administrative District 60, safety was the “priority at the top of the list,” but that in Westbrook, she struggled with trying to inject new procedures for transportation staff to follow.

Button also said that during her six months in the department, many of her procedural recommendations were met with resistance from transportation staff.

Button, who is only one of three transportation directors in Maine who are nationally certified, has also taught classes in and out of the state, including sessions for the Department of Human Services.

“I couldn’t teach these classes, and preach what I know as safe practice and have people working under me that don’t feel the same way,” she said. “There were things that I felt were important, some that are law, that I was unable to fulfill.”

“The safety of students is always my priority,” she said. “But I got to the point where I no longer felt that I could fulfill those obligations.”