District 158 Alters Bus Route After Man, 20, Allegedly Tries to Board School Bus

A 20-year-old Huntley man who is accused of trying to board a school bus has prompted local school officials to alter a school bus route that parents said was too close to the man’s house, the Northwest Herald reports.

Ruben E. Palacios is charged with disorderly conduct after police said he tried to got onto a District 158 bus in the Covington Lakes subdivision and took off his shoes and asked kids for money, according to an earlier Northwest Herald article. He did not touch any kids, police said.

Last week, District 158 officials decided to split the bus stop near the 11000 block of Caldwell Drive into two bus stops a few hundred yards apart, according to the Northwest Herald.

“That was a better solution than moving the stop, because either direction we moved it would have necessitated some students to walk by the residence of the man in question,” district spokesman Dan Armstrong told the Northwest Herald in an email.

Palacios is also accused in a separate, pending case of asking two 12-year-old girls to kiss him on Aug. 11 in Lake in the Hills, according to the newspaper. The girls refused and Palacios walked away.

Read more on the Northwest Herald.