A Walton County school bus driver has been fired after she was arrested for driving under the influence while driving students to school this week.

Carole Ann Etheridge is charged with DUI and 16 counts of endangering a child.

Walton County Sheriff Chief Deputy Keith Brooks says she had already dropped off Loganville High School students Monday morning and was on her way to the middle school when one of the students texted his mother that Etheridge wasn’t acting right. The mother then notified the school who contacted the sheriff’s department.

“The school resource officers made contact with her and performed a series of field sobriety tests in which we determined she was, in fact, impaired,” Brooks tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.

He says when they were booking her into the jail, they found a half empty bottle of tequila, four small bottles of vodka, and four bottles of prescription pills in her purse.

Walton County School District spokesperson Callen Moore says Etheridge was fired immediately when the charges came to light.

“This kind of behavior is not tolerated by the school district. Any behavior that jeopardizes the safety of our students is not tolerated,” she says.

Both Moore and Brooks are calling the student who reported the behavior to his mother a hero.

“That allowed us, as a district, to be notified and as quickly as possible get in there and prevent something from happening with these students,” says Moore.

Etheridge had only been employed by Walton County Schools since March. The Gwinnett County School District fired her in January after seven years of employment for “unsatisfactory performance”.