Parents of the children on a bus where a substitute bus driver says he slammed on the brakes to teach them a lesson are outraged after some of the kids suffered injuries and were thrown from their seats.
A Colorado school bus driver is facing child abuse charges after intentionally slamming on the brakes. He says he was trying to control the students and teach them a lesson, but parents were outraged.
Video footage of the incident showed the driver, who was a substitute school bus driver filling in for the regular driver, bringing the bus to an abrupt halt and sending children flying.
“You guys need to be in your seats,” he can be heard telling the students.
“You guys want to see how dangerous that is?” he also says before hitting the brakes.
After slamming on the brakes, the driver says, “Do you get that? That’s why you need to be in your seats. Turn around and sit down properly.”
One of the children on the bus called her parent, saying a student was badly hurt and bleeding from their cheek.
The driver tried explaining his actions to the father of a shaken student he dropped off.
“She was hurt, though,” the father tells the driver. “So you might go easy on the brakes, bro.”
“Dude, they were bouncing all over the place. And I was coming to a stop,” the driver says. “And I hit the brakes hard 'cause they were running all over the place. OK? They have to sit in their seats. I said they need to be in their seats. I was coming to a stop and I hit the brakes hard. 'Cause they weren't ... they were not listening. So, I'm sorry if she got hurt.”
Lauren Thomason says her son Hudson hit his head on the seat in front of him. She says he had just recovered from a concussion from an unrelated accident.
“We were nervous to even let him ride the bus again with the concussion and I really wish I wouldn’t have,” she tells Inside Edition. “It brought back all of his concussion symptoms, we started having migraines again…insomnia, all the things.”
“It was incredibly scary,” Hudson says of the ordeal.
The driver later wrote to the school board outside Denver, “I am sincerely sorry for my choice of actions ... There are no excuses for what transpired."
The man now faces 30 child abuse charges. He is due for his first court appearance in May. The school district calls the bus driver's actions completely unacceptable, adding that he will never again be allowed behind the wheel of one of their buses.
