LUCEDALE, Miss. (WKRG) — One of the last bus rides of the school year ends with an angry confrontation between a bus driver, students, and parents in Lucedale, Mississippi.
The bus video is making the rounds on social media. Parents say it started as a normal trip home from Central Elementary school in Lucedale Friday afternoon. Shortly after the bus route started, the driver returned to Central Station, a gas station right next to the elementary school. They claim the driver left the bus unattended for about 15 minutes. They believe the driver had fallen ill. Witnesses said that as temperature and tensions started to rise, some of the younger children on the bus started getting upset.
“They were crying and yelling,” bus rider Ramiro Pruitt said, describing the scene.
Some students began calling parents.
“She calls me, she’s crying she says mom, come get me, I’m scared,” mother Kattie Bragg said.
Bragg said that like a lot of parents, she wants to know what happened. Other parents got concerned calls from bus riders.
“My kids called me, I couldn’t hear them, there were too many kids screaming in the background for their parents,” mother Nicki Pruitt said.
Some parents then arrived at the school bus, where things began to escalate. Video circulating online shows the bus driver yelling at the students to stay on the bus and yelling at parents to stay off the bus.
“She scared those kids on the school bus, nobody wants to get back on the school bus,” Pruitt said.
Some parents worry despite all the attention this incident is getting there won’t be any change.
“I think they want everyone to be quiet about it and they’re going to brush it under the carpet,” parent Anthony Pruitt said.
The George County School District subsequently released a statement, saying they were aware of the incident and were investigating. Superintendent Wade Whitney Jr. did not answer follow-up questions Sunday, but did acknowledge they’re still trying to figure out what happened so appropriate action can be taken. Whitney said he expects more information to be released in the coming week.