Christina School District administrators, parents and police are treating the May 2 stabbing death of a busdriver as an isolated incident of domestic violence.
Christina School District spokeswoman Wendy Lapham said the incident was not school-related.
"Elizabeth Ware happened to be at her workplace, which happened to be a Christina district bus," Lamphan said. "That's just the circumstances under which an incident of domestic violence occurred."
Ware, a 31-year-old Newark resident and mother of three, was found dead shortly after 7 a.m., in the driver's seat of the bus, on eastbound Rt. 273.
Delaware State Police arrested 25-year-old Jermease Ross the evening of May 2, said state police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Whitmarsh. After investigative pleas and witness interviews, police charged Ross with murder in the first degree.
Ross is Ware's ex-boyfriend and the couple had a violent domestic history. They had lived together on Madison Drive, but Ware recently moved out. Ross allegedly threatened and harassed Ware, Whitmarsh said.
"It's a really tragic thing that occurred," he said. "We have domestic violence cases all the time, but they rarely involve this level of violence."
Although the community has shown an outpouring of sympathy toward the driver and her family, Lapham said the impact on students was not significant and she has not heard concerns from parents about bus safety.
Bus drivers receive a minimum of three days training from the state and the district offers additional training, she said. The primary focus of instruction is assuring student safety.
"I'm not sure this is a situation we could have anticipated or prevented," Lapham said. "This type of incident is kind of outside the realm of what bus drivers are trained to do. It's not in any training manual."
The bus Ware was driving did not have a surveillance camera, she said. However, the police were able to identify the suspect quickly, so she believes a surveillance camera was not needed.
Whitmarsh said although the state police identified the suspect within one half-hour of launching an investigation, a bus camera would have been helpful in prosecution.
Newark resident Karen Gray, whose children attend Downes Elementary School on Casho Mill Road, said she was impressed with the way school officials handled the situation. The school was locked down the day of the stabbing and police were present.
"It wasn't like a bunch of crazy chickens with their heads cut off," Gray said. "They had a plan and they followed through with it."
She said she still thinks her children are safe on school buses.
"When I first heard about it I was horrified," Gray said. "I was relieved a little bit that it was a domestic situation and not a random attack against a bus driver."
She said she was frustrated with newspaper reports that emphasized problems with bus safety. Instead, she believes the Newark community should focus on protecting women like Ware, who have been abused and are at risk for future attacks.
"We did nothing as a society to protect her," Gray said. "These young girls think the best they can get is these drugged-up jerks who beat them and their children. Nobody protected her."
Paulina Gyan, spokeswoman for the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence, stated in an e-mail message that Ware did everything in her power to protect herself.
"She reported the abuse to the police numerous times, she sought a 'no contact' order against her abuser and followed it up by moving out of the home they both shared," Gyan said. "I believe what happened here is an individual with a history of violence who could not live with the fact that the relationship had ended and was determined to wield his power over his partner.
"It also points to a weakness in society's response to domestic violence, where it is treated as a personal problem of minor consequence."
Ending an abusive relationship is not always an easy option, she said. Violence sometimes escalates when the victim leaves the relationship.
Gyan said this does not mean that victims should stay in abusive relationships.
"What it means is that victims need to be more aware and alert when they choose to leave and seek assistance with safety planning," she said.
It is estimated that only one- third of domestic violence cases are reported, Gyan said.
"Only a commitment involving our entire community to hold perpetrators accountable and enforce a zero tolerance will bring us closer to ending domestic violence," she said.
Lapham said the schools are offering grief counseling to transportation employees who worked with Ware. The Christina transportation department is organizing a fund to benefit Ware's three children.
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