Former Rockwall bus driver admitted to recording kids for ‘many years,’ according to warrant

A former Rockwall school-bus driver who was accused of recording students on his bus admitted to doing so for years, authorities say.

Police arrested 43-year-old Michael Paul Smith last week and charged him with invasive visual recording after a camera system installed on his bus revealed he was recording improper video of students on his route as they got on and off the vehicle.

Rockwall ISD officials began investigating Smith after receiving an anonymous tip from a parent who said Smith had told their elementary school-age daughter “how nice” she looked, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit. The parent considered the comment “creepy,” the warrant says, prompting district officials to review surveillance footage from his bus.

The footage showed at least 11 occasions of troubling conduct, according to the affidavit.

In a recording from November, Smith appeared to use his cellphone to record underneath the skirt of a middle-school student as she got on his bus, the affidavit says. Other footage reportedly showed him focusing on female students as they got on the bus and watching them from behind as they passed him.

In a written statement to the district’s human-resources director, Smith denied ever recording students. But he reversed his stance in an email to the director the following day, according to a search-warrant affidavit.

“So I am now confessing to you, yes, I was discreetly filming students on my bus. I have been doing this for many years,” Smith wrote, according to the affidavit. “The reason I do this is irrelevant. I can tell you it’s a tool I use. I broke district policy and I most definitely broke a law. Most importantly, I put children’s lives at risk.”

Investigators searched Smith’s home, but it isn’t clear what evidence, if any, they found there.

The district sent a letter to parents on Jan. 14 notifying them that Smith had been fired. His primary bus route served students at Springer Elementary and Utley Middle schools.

“The safety of your child is a responsibility that we take seriously and this behavior is not tolerated in Rockwall ISD,” the letter said.