Colorado driver facing charges of child abuse after deliberately slamming the brakes. He claimed he was trying control students to teach them a valuable lesson. However, parents became outraged.
In video footage, the driver of the school bus, who was filling in as the driver for the regular bus, brought the bus to a sudden stop and sent 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.”
The child called home to tell her that the student on the bus was seriously injured, and had blood running down their cheek.
The driver attempted to explain his actions in front of the dad of a student that he had 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? You have to get them to their seats. They need to sit in their chairs. When I came to a halt, I slammed on the brakes. They weren’t…they were not listening. So, I’m sorry if she got hurt.”
Lauren Thomason claims that her son Hudson struck his head against the seat next to him. He had recently recovered from concussions from an accident that was unrelated.
“We were nervous to even let him ride the bus again with the concussion and I really wish I wouldn’t have,” she tells . “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 … The events that occurred are not excused.
Now, the man faces 30 charges of child abuse. The man is scheduled to make his first appearance before the court in May. The district has called the driver’s behavior unacceptable and said that he would never be permitted to drive a school bus again.