What would’ve been a simple bus ride home for students of a Calaveras Unified school turned into a heated incident that forced law enforcement to intervene.
On Monday, August 28, a school bus driver halted the vehicle at a stop in California’s Calaveras County and refused to let the students out.
Concerned parents gathered outside the bus and began banging on the door furiously, and the situation quickly spiraled out of control.
Highlights
- A school bus driver in California refused to let students off the bus after one of them broke a rule.
- Angry parents smashed the bus door and broke into the vehicle to confront him.
- Authorities later found several discrepancies in the parents’ account of the incident.
Authorities from the Sheriff’s Office responded to the skirmish, and they have now released a statement clarifying what went down.
Distressed parents stormed a school bus as the driver refused to let students out
According to local outlet KCRA 3, the driver stopped at a designated bus stop along Highway 49 near Russell Road and was trying to restore order on the bus when a student climbed out through a window.
“Everybody was screaming and stuff because they were excited to get off the bus,” a 12-year-old student who was on board told the outlet.
After one kid squeezed out of the window, the driver asked the others to “sit down” and “roll up the windows,” the eyewitness said. They added that the driver said they would have to wait for law enforcement before getting off the bus.
A video provided to KCRA 3 by another student who recorded the incident showed a parent climbing into the bus through a window and confronting the driver.
Another parent pounded on the bus door and eventually broke the glass pane, the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
“The parent was ultimately taken into custody at the School District's request for vandalism,” it read.
Some parents asked their children to climb out through the windows as well, and a few obliged.
After the incident, many parents claimed that the kids were locked inside the bus with windows rolled up for at least an hour, a claim that the Sheriff’s Office later disputed.
Parents were divided over the bus driver’s actions
Nichole Wellington, mother of one of the kids stuck on the bus, told KCRA 3 that her son called her from the bus and said he was scared. She drove to the stop and asked the driver to let her son off.
“I went right to the door, and I was like, ‘Dude, open the door. Let me have my kid.’ And he's like, ‘I’m not doing that,’” Wellington said.
“If he had handled that situation and given the parents their kids that were there. I think it probably would have gone a little bit differently than it did.”
Rebecca Glover, whose two children were on the bus, disagreed.
After arriving at the scene, Glover asked her children to remain seated and wait. She said she believes the driver was trying to keep the students safe.
“There was not just one child they had to think of,” Glover said. “They had to think of every single child on that bus at that time.”
With the incident raising questions about how such situations would be handled in the future, Wellington suggested another adult supervisor should be on board so the driver, while driving, “should not have to deal with all those kids by himself.”
“Parents are now sending their children to school to be parented instead of parenting their children at home, and that is a concern,” Glover chimed in.
The Sheriff’s Office cleared the bus driver of any wrongdoing
“School bus safety rules exist to protect students and should be followed by both students and parents,” Superintendent Kassie Meeks said right after the incident.
On Thursday, August 27, the Sheriff’s Office issued an update on the incident, stating that the bus was stopped for only four minutes “while the driver addressed concerning student behavior, reviewed bus expectations, and asked students to calm down.”
During this time, the first student climbed out, requiring the driver to notify authorities under child safety protocols.
The statement dismissed the claim that students were being held on a bus with the windows rolled up, as it was inconsistent with the bus’ video footage: “The parent herself entered the bus through an open window.”
The statement said the parents’ behavior escalated the matter and caused damage to the School District’s property.
It also clarified that the driver did not commit any transgression.
“Regarding the driver, after reviewing the video footage, the District believes the driver acted appropriately under extremely challenging circumstances,” the statement said.
“His focus remained on student safety, maintaining order, and attempting to de-escalate the situation.”
"Teach your kids respect." Some netizens sided with the driver while others with the parents
