RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Some North Raleigh parents are angry after a school bus driver drove their kids back to school and left them to find their own way home.
Parents said it was a substitute bus driver behind the wheel.
“There was a lot of throwing stuff out the window and also a lot of bad talking and rough playing and stuff,” said sixth-grader Inani Washington.
“That maybe made her angry and stuff. I’m not sure… She just went back to school,” said eighth-grader Victor Aguilara.
According to an email from the principal, by the time the bus was back at Wakefield and an administrator was in the bus loop, most of the students were already off the bus. Many had already started walking home. In the future, the principal wrote that that won’t be allowed to happen.
“Just really a big safety concern that nobody from the school reached out,” parent Elizabeth Soloff said.
Soloff said her daughter called her Wednesday afternoon while she was at work to let her know what happened and that she needed to be picked up.
“I saw a lot of kids walking down Falls of Neuse and crossing the road when I went to pick up my daughter and her friend. Then the thought is, ‘Do these parents even know where their kids are right now?'” Soloff said.
“Kids are going to be loud, and when you sign up to be a bus driver, things can happen differently. You have to be able to confront them and calm them down,” Elizabeth Schiffman said.
Parents said the school didn’t reach out to them until Thursday afternoon.
In an email, the principal called the students behavior “loud and disrespectful.” She went on to say that, unless there was an immediate physical danger, the bus driver should have finished the route.
In response to CBS 17’s request for comment, Wake County Schools said it is “looking into the situation to determine what happened.”
Students said a couple of their classmates had been disciplined.
There is no word on whether the school bus driver will be allowed to return.
