Posted on 08/27/2026 9:33:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
A California school bus ride home turned into a scene out of a third-world country Monday when furious parents smashed their way onto a Calaveras Unified bus and children started climbing out the windows because the driver refused to let the kids off.
The wild scene unfolded along Highway 49 near Russell Road in Calaveras County after students were held on the stopped bus for about an hour.
According to KCRA 3, the trouble began when a student reportedly tried to climb out a window before the bus had come to a stop.
The driver then pulled over, contacted law enforcement, and ordered the students to remain seated and roll up the windows. The children were reportedly kept aboard for nearly an hour while they waited for deputies to arrive.
Video recorded by a student shows the scene rapidly spiraling out of control as students shouted, parents gathered outside, children squeezed through open windows, and at least one adult climbed into the bus.
One 12-year-old student told KCRA that the children had been loud and excited to get off the bus before the situation escalated.
Nichole Wellington said her frightened son called her from inside the bus. She rushed to the scene and demanded that the driver release him.
“Dude, open the door. Let me have my kid,” Wellington recalled telling the driver. According to Wellington, he refused.
Wellington then instructed her son to climb out through a window.
She argued that the chaos could have been avoided if the driver had simply released children to the parents who had arrived to collect them.
I’d be interested to know what happened aboard the bus that caused the driver to stop and call the police. I would think he could have dropped the kids off normally and inform school police afterwards that they are too rowdy, or whatever.
An alarm? After being stopped for an unreasonable time, setting off an alarm isn’t exactly a problem.
Was the bus an EV? Asking for Kameltoe
If the bus driver let the kid go and it wasn't a parent, it would be a serious liability issue for him/her.
There will be two sides to this story, we are only getting one of them.
“nearly an hour while they waited for deputies to arrive”
Help is only 1/2 hour away.
Lesson Learned:
In an Emergency, YOU are you’re family’s First Responder.
git mo range time.
I was in Angels’ Camp, about 15 miles from there, when I turned of onto Rte. 4 to head northeast. This isn’t exactly the Third World. There are many old mining towns in the area that attract tourists.
It doesn’t seem too hard to ask each kid, “Do you know this person? Are you good being released to this person?”
There’s more to this story, of course. Shooting from the uninformed but opinionated hip and assigning blame, my order would be:
1. The yayhoo parents who taught their kids that defying authority was acceptable;
2. The spoiled brats who pushed the limits, putting themselves and others in danger;;
3. The bus driver, who did his best to ensure the safety of his passengers under what was clearly an out of control situation. Seems he overreacted, having been pushed beyond his limits.
Hahaha... I was waiting for someone to refer to the famous frogs!
Exactly. The problem here, aside from the kid who tried to climb out a window while the bus was rolling rather than get off at his stop via the door, was that it should never have taken an hour for police to respond. That’s insane.
You win the internet today
School bus drivers in Virginia make about $17 an hour. It just isn’t worth it. Kids can say anything that you did to them whether you did or not and you’d be arrested. They’d always take the kids word.
SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP OR THE BUNNY GETS IT!
100%. This spin on this MSM story is terrible.
America’s progs and neo-marxists taught people that the state will take care of everything - education, and childcare, even from birth! Health care until death!
We’ve also taught people to be social justice warriors, “talk truth to power,” and demand your rights.
So just wait until the state, its bloated bureaucracy, and its low-level apparatchiks, whether bus drivers, cops, school administrators, teachers, hospital admin, tell you NO.
This episode is just a tiny microcosm of that.
> It doesn’t seem too hard to ask each kid… <
Smaller kids are easily intimidated. And they will also lie. Not to deceive, but to try to please.
So, yeah. DiogenesLamp has a point in his post #24.
This report does not tell the story. What happened here?
> It just isn’t worth it. <
You’ve got that right. Driving a school bus can be a high-stress job. I’m amazed companies get drivers at the wages they offer.
Girl on a school bus: “Driver, Johnny just punched me in the face! Ow! It hurts really bad.”
As a driver, what do you do?
A. Stop, and call the police.
B. Stop, and call for an ambulance.
C. Keep on driving.
Better pick the right option. Your job might depend on it.
Me, I’d pick option D.
D. Quit, and look for another job.
As for the crash, the bus was dented slightly and the station wagon that hit us looked like its engine must have been in the front seat. Big yellow bus 1 - Station Wagon 0.
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