Drunk Man Boards Wissahickon School Bus, Walks Into HS: Cops

LOWER GWYNEDD, PA — A drunk man walking home early Friday morning hopped aboard a local school bus and rode it all the way to Wissahickon High School, where he got off and went inside, police said.

The man, later identified as 20-year-old Dominic Herder of Oreland, boarded the bus without the driver knowing. He was walking home along Welsh Road and got aboard in hopes of riding it closer to home, police said.

It was dark at the time of morning, police said, and Herder — wearing a hooded sweatshirt — boarded the bus with the rest of the students.

"There was nothing about his appearance that made him stand out," police said.

However, Herder didn't go straight home. He went into the high school.

At around 7:25 a.m... a Wissahickon student told a Lower Gwynedd school resource officer, Beth Sanborn, that there was someone he didn't recognize on his bus.

Sanborn and school officials found Herder shortly thereafter. When confronted, police said Herder ran out of the school through the front doors, and was chased into the parking lot of the Meadows Condominiums, located just across the street from the high school. They caught up to him there, and he was taken into custody.

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It remains unclear why Herder entered the high school instead of continuing on home.

"I would like to recognize the student who something suspicious and immediately reported it to SRO Sanborn," Lower Gwynedd Township Police Chief Paul Kenny said in a statement. "This is a great example of the school administration, students and police all working together to proactively resolve a potentially hazardous

Herder faces charges of trespassing and related counts, and currently awaits his arraignment.