PHOTOS: An apparent joke gone bad, or misunderstanding, prompted children to jump out of a school bus emergency exit Friday, multiple sources confirm to TLS.
At about 9:30 AM, witnesses say they suddenly saw approximately eight children around 12-13 years old run out of the rear emergency exit of a school bus, and run towards the nearest home. Not knowing what was happening, a driver behind the bus reportedly phoned police.
“They ran towards me saying “we’re being kidnapped,” a witness told TLS.
The visibly-frightened kids relayed to neighbors that the substitute bus driver allegedly made a comment something to the effect that “you are trapped (on the bus),” prompting them to believe they were in trouble. The kids waited until the bus stopped at the next stop on the route before bailing through the rear emergency exit.
As it turns out, the substitute driver was possibly relaying to the children that they had no choice but to remain on the bus – which the children apparently interpreted very wrongly.
“He’s a nice driver, and we haven’t heard complaints about him,” a school official told TLS.
Police and school officials responded to the scene and phoned the children’s parents to come pick up their children, and to calm them down, a witness on scene told TLS.
Police tell TLS that the matter is being handled by the school’s dean, and the bus company.
[TLS]
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KPICASA_GALLERY(KidsJumpOffBus#)
As a bus aide to a private bus company I can see how the kids may have taken that the wrong way. I think bus drivers and aide do get a back rap with people. If they kids really felt threatened then they did the right thing. But i do feel parents and teacher need to have a long hard talk to the kids about bus safety. I hope everyone is okay
the children were ages 5to12 and jumped of when a sub Busdriver was asked where’s th regular Busdriver he replied tied up in the back
Why is the lpd not crimanaly investigating these crazed bus drivers?
One of these days the lack of protection of the vulnerable children will come back to haunt the lpd.
My child was on the bus the children were actually aged between 6-11 years old. The bus driver told the kids that there regular bus driver was tied up in the back of the bus and that now they were trapped forever…
oh come on, the kids should have known better. A 11 year old?
poor bus driver!
Be careful what you say in front of children. Speaking ill of school bus drivers, as people often do, plays a major role in a child’s perception. All school bus drivers are finger printed back ground checked, drug tested:randomly. No criminal legally will ever school drive a bus! There’s a lot of headache to secure your license alone. So say positive things. These people are working hard to transport kids safely. The buses have GPS and multiple video cameras. So relax and perhaps the children will mirror that behavior.
This is all on the driver. He should never talk that way to children. Especially these days when were being asked to explain to our kids all the time about the dangers of strangers. & now a strange bus driver tells them they’re trapped forever?? Basically that he plans on kidnapping them?? This driver should be fired & those kids congratulated for bravely doing the right thing.
The bigger problem is the LPDs immediate assumption to dismiss the incident as a bad joke and blame the terrified children for using the emergency door in a “non emergency” situation. If not for the parents who voiced their concern for the safety of the children who remained on the bus and were still not confirmed to have arrived in school, they would have left the scene without any investigation. Unacceptable.
Those kids did the right thing!! Now let the bus company and the Lpd do the same and fire this driver!! The trauma those kids must have had is unbelievable! Let this be a lesson to the other drivers that their sole purpose in their job is to safely drive innocent children to and from school!
we should interview and have final say on who is hired to drive buses in out town.
Not at all funny. I’m impressed that those boys knew the right thing to do when they felt threatened.
To funny I agree with you if that was our kids I think the bus driver would of been in trouble. Some kids are to soft!8
one step further, yes have a final say on hired drivers. and Frum to the front of the line !
I’m sure he thought it was a cute joke, and didn’t mean any harm; however, you don’t say that to kids these days with all they hear on the news. He should apologize to the children and their parents. Poor kids, they must have been so scared.
I personally knew 2 drivers for (moderated) bus service that would smoke marijuana on the bus when the kids were off. Were always high! So no I do not buy the whole routine drug testing. No bus driver, teacher, aide should play with children like that. If it were my child I would tell them to take all threats serious as well. Just telling facts
@anon- rather than report, did u just share with drivers?
@ # 15, YES the drivers are randomly tested and if anyone tests positive they are FIRED immediately. If you personally knew of such driver’s smoking marijuana as you claim, did you report them to the company? If you did that’s great and if you shame on you
my bad, I made a typo.
Last sentence should say, If you did, that’s great and if not shame on you
Lakewood Resident – Nice to ear the voice of sanity.
*hear
The driver made a mistake, plain and simple. Having said that let me speak in defense of drivers. I was a school bus driver in Lakewood for 3 years…and I refuse to ever drive there again! People ran my reds EVERYDAY, I was passed on the right, cut off, tailgate, all while trying to maintain control of 50 kids sitting behind me. It’s all fine and well for Lakewood residents to point fingers at the bus drivers when you should examine your own driving habits. Yes, we are drug tested, fingerprinted, required to pass physicals and held to a higher standard than you. Fines and points are doubled for us, even when driving our own vehicles or off duty. If I am pulled over on my day off in my own vehicle with a blood alcohol level of .04, I will lose my license. All for the privilege of driving through the worst traffic in NJ. Take notice of the “Drivers Wanted” signs all over town. I sincerely hope that one day the bus drivers in Lakewood will organize and walk out on the district, refusing to return until they are treated with respect. In the meantime, we will continue to leave for better towns and districts.
Wow Laura, you said it all. I agree. Who would want this job in this Town. I’m on the Howell/Lakewood border and would NEVER drive through that town. I give the bus drivers so much credit. This person did/said a dumb thing and was wrong; however, maybe he just had enough. Enough already! I can’t get out of my development because people walk in the streets even though we have sidewalks. I just don’t get it, and I’m from NY. I’m so embarrassed when we have company over.