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.
Highway 49 is a long twisty hilly country road, with the speed limit 25 to 35 mph in many places, located in the foothills, there are some very small towns scattered along it, with a lot of empty countryside between them, it is ENTIRELY reasonable that it might take an hour for CHP or county sheriff to arrive. The bus driver is in the right. He/she cannot and should not release any children into the custody of anyone unless the police are there. The bus driver is “locus parentis” until the children are taken home to their parents or legal guardians. This is all much ado about nothing. Ask yourselves, would you want the bus driver turning your child over to someone who claims to be the parent? Would you want your young child getting off the bus while this Free-for-All going on,losing herself in thousands of miles of forested wilderness, perhaps falling down an old mine shaft, encountering a bear or other wild predator, especially of the human kind? I think it is fine some of the parents are able to get there and wait peacefully, keeping things calm. It will be easier for everyone if they behave like adults. After all, the bus driver is not kidnapping the child, he is doing everything by the book.
WHEN WE RODE THE HIGH SCHOOL BUS TO GAMES, ETC., IF ANYONE MISBEHAVED-—THE DRIVER WOULD STOP THE BUS & WE ALL WOULD BE IN TROUBLE.
NO ONE DID IT TWICE..
COULD BE WORTHWHILE FOR DRIVER TO INSTALL A MINOLTA CAMERA
“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.”
There also might not be enough police officers on duty. The officers on duty probably have a large territory to cover. There may not be enough money in the budget to hire more officers.
Ha! First thing I thought of.
“The children were reportedly kept aboard for nearly an hour while they waited for deputies to arrive.”
When seconds count, the deputies are only an hour away...
To watch over his Flock?
Obviously your critical thinking skills are weak. If the driver does not know the parents, the driver does not know them when he drops them off.
Holding the kids an hour after expected drop off is not acceptable, The kids obviously recognized their parents, no different other than location of the stop.
This is wrong and the idea that the state somehow has a higher level of privilege over the parent, especially with no due process involved is beyond insane.
Stop promoting actions that empower the state to take away parents rights and their children.
The driver held all the kids hostage from their parents, not just the one at issue.
Stop giving away parental rights and the children of the parents to the state.
The driver had no right to hold all the children, locked away from all the parents.
Obviously your critical thinking skills are weak. If the driver does not know the parents, the driver does not know them when he drops them off.
The kids on the bus were apparently out of control, up to the point of a kid trying to exit the bus out of a window.
He pulled over and called the cops to report a dangerous situation. Should he have waited for an hour for the cops to arrive? I don’t know. I would think he’d have been better off turning around and returning to school to let the school’s administrators deal with the situation.
But there is no way he is going to allow adults onto the bus whether they claim to be parents or not.
And for some light-hearted school bus driver humor, there’s this:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TMFM7OipSKA
my thoughts exactly... we trained every year on how to escape out of the bus. It was fun jumping out the back exit.
The one that prohibits a driver from turning over to someone who is not positively identified as being a legal parent or guardian.
Most the Freepers on this thread are daft.
“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.”
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Thanks. I just saw a previous post (81) which said that highway is “a long twisty hilly country road”. It sounds like what that kid wanted to do was get off somewhere unauthorized and potentially dangerous.
And she would go back into the school for 20-30 minutes. We learned.
When the parent shows up, they are no longer his responsibility, good grief stop being a sheep, the state is not God and has no right to your children ever when you are present, unless due process has removed that right.
I don’t care how bad the kids were unless they were literally breaking the law, being unruly, even extremely so is not a legal issue. making such exceptions because you don’t like a behavior in this instance is not acceptable, the bus was stopped, what legal authority did he have to hold the children hostage when it was obvious parents were present.. Ya they were horrible, that is not the issue.
You making up your own story now? That’s not why he locked the kids the kids inside. It was the parents outside. It was a mother breaking the window to get her kid. Maybe read the story before commenting so you understand who is daft.
Just the school bus I used to ride on did not have an alarm.
But that was back in the dark ages.
Are you daft? There is no way the driver could verify that she was the kid's mother.
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