Driver Locks Kids On School Bus: Screaming Students Are Locked, Trapped On School Bus By Driver [Video]

An Arizona bus driver locked kids on his school bus in a failed attempt to make the rowdy passengers listen to him. It led to a disastrous episode of upset parents and screaming kids.

The students were trapped inside the school bus because the driver claims they were being too loud and misbehaving, but their parents became frantic during the punishment process — one they call an “unjust punishment,” reports CBS News.

Surveillance video shows 40 young children scared, crying, and begging the driver to let them off the bus. They even pushed ahead to the front of the bus trying to exit, but the driver refused to unlock the door.

The driver trapped the kids on the bus and used their parents as a tool in his mission to have complete control.

“See, your parents are getting upset. You break that door; you’re going to be buying a new one! Your kid will get off the bus when I am done with ’em,” the driver snapped.

Parents were attempting to pry doors open while others called 911. One of the parents said the driver wouldn’t let any of the kids off the bus and that he was screaming at them while the kids were crying.

At one point, the driver stepped on the gas and bolted away.

“He’s actually driving away with all our kids,” one parent said. “He’s got all our kids on the bus.”

The kids were driven back to Dysart Elementary School and dropped off by the driver there. No injuries were reported in the incident.

“I don’t know if he went crazy, was going to crash into something because the way he took off he was speeding,” said parent, Adam Kautman.

The unidentified bus driver has been put on administrative leave by the school district. Parents want more than that after the driver locked their children on the school bus.

“They’re responsible for the lives of all those children on the bus to get home safely, and he did the exact opposite of that,” Kautman protested.

The school superintendent said this wasn’t the bus driver’s regular route, and that ALL drivers are responsible for children’s safety. Since the incident, the bus driver has resigned from his job.

KPHO 5 News spoke with a former school bus driver, June Baker, who explained how harrowing it can be in this kind of job.

“When you’re under a real stressful situation and you’re trying to watch traffic, and then you’ve got kids jumping up and down in seats and running, being rude, and the poor other kids. It doesn’t matter how much training you have when you’re in that situation; nothing works.”

Since the bus driver locked children on the school bus, parents are furious that this individual thought he had the final say in what happened to their sons and daughters while they were under his control.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]