LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two separate incidents on JCPS busses are causing concern among parents.
A viral Facebook post shows a man boarding a Jefferson County Public School bus last Friday and then berating the young children onboard.
In a letter to parents sent on Aug. 26, Carter Elementary School Principal Jamie Wyman said the incident took place on bus number 2047. She says while at a bus stop, the man and a girl stepped on the bus and began threatening students.
"I'll flip this whole bus with everybody on it and I mean that, I mean that," the man says in the video. "That goes for everybody on here, touch my daughter again and I'll flip this whole bus."
The bus driver ushered the two people off the bus, but they got into a vehicle and began following the bus, Wyman said. Students reported seeing the people in the vehicle display a gun while following the school bus.
In the video, children can be heard screaming and crying as the man curses and berates them for allegedly bullying his daughter. At one point, the young girl tries climbing over a seat to get to students but the driver keeps her back.
Louisville Metro Police and JCPS Security were notified, Wyman says, and the bus driver was told to bring the bus back to Carter Elementary without stopping. Students were told to wait on the bus until security arrived.
Wyman says parents were told to come to the school to pick up their students.
"We feel this was the safest and best way for your children to get home today," she said. "The safety of our students and staff is our top priority at Carter Elementary."
The school principal thanked the bus driver for his quick actions and for stepping up to keep students safe.
Bruce Sweeney said his 5 year-old-daughter is in her first year at Carter Elementary and this school year was her first time riding a school bus.
"As soon as we finally get her loving school busses, that was taken from her," Sweeney said. "He traumatized a lot of kids, even my daughter."
Sweeny said his daughter has refused to ride the bus since Friday and she begged him, and her 15-year-old brother, to pick her up.
"As being a father, and a man, yes, you want to protect your child at all means necessary, but there's ways that you go around that," Sweeney said. "He could've easily did what I just did, talk to the principal, talk to the bus driver, talk to other parents, instead of going on the bus and scaring kids. Because right now, you just made yourself look like a monster in front of all these kids."
Counselors were made available to students on Monday as Wyman says some students may be suffering some trauma from the ordeal.
A JCPS spokesperson added that JCPS Security was at the bus stop yesterday and followed the bus. A School Security Officer was also present at the school during dismissal.
Both LMPD and JCPS Security are investigating this incident.
There was also another incident involving students on a JCPS bus on Friday afternoon.
LMPD said a 20-year-old and a juvenile were arrested after a fight broke out on a school bus and spilled onto the sidewalk at 1st and East Saint Catherine Street in Old Louisville.
A bystander, who wants to remain anonymous, recorded the video that he shared with WHAS 11.
He told WHAS 11 that he thinks more incidents like this occur than parents and the public are made aware of. And, he said he was worried about the number of students who got off the bus and walked.
"Do the parents know that their kids are being dropped off, and just at some random corner in Louisville, maybe far from their houses," he asked. "It's not really safe, and it's not appropriate."
He said JCPS should be more up front; it's something JCPS bus driver union president John Stovall agrees with.
Stovall also said JCPS should provide more protection for his drivers.
"If they allow adults to get on the bus, and threaten students and threaten the bus drivers and all that, then they should be liable for that," he said.
Stovall said the best way to stop these kinds of incidents is to criminally charge adults who enter busses and suspend students who start fights.
"Send a stern message that type of behavior will not be tolerated," he said.
Stovall said here are still about 200 JCPS bus drivers needed, and he said events like these don't help.
► Contact reporter Bobbi McSwine at BMcSwine@whas11.com or on Facebook or Twitter
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