[Harold Keith Lone] also used the name [Harold Keith Holmes] to seek a job as a bus driver with Laidlaw, one of six private companies providing transportation services on a contract basis to the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Lone was hired as a $7.75-per-hour school bus driver last September after he presented himself to Laidlaw as a self-employed handyman with valid credentials and a clean driving record under the Holmes identity, said Dave Daley, Laidlaw's vice president of operations.

Bud Dunevant, the school district's director of transportation, said bus drivers hired by the district are fingerprinted by the district as well as by the California Highway Patrol. Those hired by the private companies such as Laidlaw are fingerprinted only by the Highway Patrol, a process that is supposed to reveal a bad driving history or criminality, Dunevant said.