Colorado school district under fire after bus driver leaves 40 students at wrong stop: Reports
A Douglas County School District official said the substitute bus driver no longer works for them.
Parents of students in a Colorado school district are seeking answers after they claim their children were dropped off at the wrong location by a substitute bus driver, who is now fired, earlier this week, according to reports.
The incident, which occurred on Monday, reportedly involved students from Clear Sky Elementary School located in Castle Rock, which is about 30 miles from Denver.
One student and her mother spoke to local outlets. The student told 9 News that the bus driver left the school parking lot later than usual that afternoon.
“He wouldn’t let us leave the school until we stopped talking, " the student told the local outlet. "He finally left, and he was skipping all the kids' stops, and when I say all the kids, I mean all the kids. And we felt like when he was driving and missing our stops, like we were getting kidnapped.”
According to the report, the 10-year-old claimed that the driver ordered dozens of students to get off the bus at a random location two miles from the school, leaving them frightened, flustered, and in the cold weather without their parents. Now, the Douglas County School District and the bus driver are under fire.
9 News and KMGH-TV reported that the student's mother said a stranger helped her children contact her.
“I was absolutely petrified, and for a stranger to call me and tell me that she had my children in the car and they were crying and screaming, and bright red and frozen,” the mother told the news station.
She continued, “This wasn’t an honest mistake or a slip-up. There were a lot of ways the driver could have handled this."
The school district says the incident is under investigation
The Douglas County School District responded to the community in a letter on Wednesday sent to the families of the children assigned to Route #253.
In the statement obtained by Paste BN, Chief Operations Officer Rich Cosgrove said that the district has launched an internal investigation and is partnering with the Castle Rock Police Department. He also apologized and provided details on what happened that afternoon.
"Your child’s route consists of 12 stops. On the third stop on Monday afternoon, the bus stopped just short of the usual location, leading to some confusion. At that time, the remaining 40 students on the bus all exited, with many getting off at the wrong bus stop," the statement said. "Regrettably, the driver did not follow protocol when this happened. The driver should have immediately notified DCSD transportation dispatch."
Cosgrove said that the relief driver no longer works for the school district. The regular driver, who was out, will return to the route.
Still, the incident left parents demanding footage from inside the bus to be released. However, Cosgrove said the district could not share the video at this time due to the ongoing investigation.
Terminated driver issues an apology on local news
According to 9 News, the substitute bus driver, Irving Johnson, apologized to the families.
"I wish I had done better. I should have stopped and shut the bus, and talked to the parents, and gotten in their heads to get the kids back on the bus who had gotten off," Irving said, per the report. "And I didn’t think to do that, and that was my fault, and that’s why I got terminated. That’s what they told me."
It also comes amid a bus driver shortage in the district, a former driver explained to KDVR.
“There’s not enough drivers there. They need to spend some time with those drivers training them," the person told the outlet. “He needed to learn the routes."
Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for Paste BN. You can reach her at tardrey@gannett.com.