Of all the establishments, one would expect at least the schools to be quick to learn from their mistakes. But in Bengaluru, that’s clearly not the case. The latest incident involves two school bus drivers caught transporting students under the influence of alcohol, as early as 7.30 am, on Friday.Despite multiple incidents involving grave crimes ranging from sexual abuse to physical assault and inebriated drivers transporting children from their homes to schools recently, the institutions are still caught in a deep slumber to ensure minimum safety of their students. While school managements promise proper background and character verification before hiring private employees working in close proximity of students, the ground reality often proves that safety precautions and guidelines are not being followed at most private schools in the city.On Friday, both the drivers arrested were employed with New Horizon Gurukul. They were headed towards the school on Outer Ring Road near Marathalli when a traffic police team intercepted them near Wilson Garden junction. The cops also seized both the vans and took them to the Wilson Garden Traffic police station.“Both drivers had excessive alcohol content in their blood when we made them blow into the alcometer. Initially, they insisted that they were not drunk but later they got down from the vehicle. We seized both the vehicles and also made alternate arrangement for the children to be taken to their school,” said a traffic inspector involved in the drive.According to the police, the drivers identified as Krishna Gubi, 21, and Venkataswamy, 25, were working for New Horizon School and had blood alcohol content of over 43 mg per 100 ml of blood (which is above the legally permissible limit while handling a vehicle). Even more shocking is the fact that cops claimed the school’s transport department failed to give clear information on either drivers, even though they drove schoolbuses owned by their institution.Despite repeated attempts made by Bangalore Mirror, the management of New Horizon Gurukul refused to comment on the incident.“We suspect that both of them have fake driving licenses. The school authorities have also not been able to give us any further details about these men who have been working as their drivers for some time. We are investigating the matter,” said a traffic inspector involved in the drive.Abhishek Goyal, deputy commissioner of police, traffic (east), said they have been conducting a special drive against drunk driving in the city during the last three days. On Thursday, the traffic police had booked a private school van driver, identified as Manju, reportedly for driving recklessly under the influence of alcohol. He was stopped at the Nrupathunga gate with 30 Bishop Cotton School students onboard.Anyone found driving under the influence of alcohol could be fined to the tune of Rs 2,000 and also imprisoned for six months, as per the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act. Repeat offenders could be penalised with Rs 3,000 and three-year imprisonment. A proposal has been made to increase the fine for the offence to Rs 10,000. According to the city traffic police statistics, as many as 29,005 people were booked for driving under the influence of alcohol in 2016 (up to July 2016) while 62,576 and 55,138 were booked in 2015 and 2014, respectively.NOT EXCEPTIONSThese are not isolated incidents — the driver of Venkat International Public School was caught driving in an inebriated state with 32 children onboard on August 3.“School van drivers driving under the influence of alcohol is a cause of alarm and, henceforth, checks for drunk driving will be done more frequently. Schools should do thorough background research on bus drivers and must have all information on drivers. The details of the outsourced school vans should also be collected as soon as they are hired,” said R Hitendra, additional commissioner of police (traffic).According to D Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Karnataka Associated Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS), some of the elite schools in the city have around 20 to 30 transport systems operating to transport students, and monitoring all of them is a difficult task. He also added that most of them outsource their transport requirements to private parties and have minimum control over choosing drivers and attendants who transport the children on a daily basis.“The drivers keep changing; the management has no control over it. We regret such incidents but it is extremely important for the management to monitor the transport system to protect the interest of children,” he added. A number of city schools and their hiring practices had come under close scrutiny in the recent times after a spate of sexual abuse incidents involving school employees were reported in the city. A physical education instructor of a private school was arrested for sexually targeting a four-year-old girl at an English-medium school.In a similar incident, a security guard of a private school in Indiranagar was arrested for allegedly assaulting a three-year-old girl on August 3, 2015. In Jan 2015, in a school in Hosaguddadahalli, a teacher made sexual advances on a seven-year-old girl.