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Officials: Driver followed protocols in stopping with bus full of Connellsville students

By Mark Hofmann mhofmann@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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Officials in the Connellsville Area School District have cleared a driver who pulled over with a bus full of students of wrongdoing, and police are now planning to charge three parents who showed up to take their children from the bus.

CASD Superintendent Joseph Bradley said district officials reviewed video and audio recordings from a bus carrying students from West Crawford Elementary School that, on March 17 around 4 p.m., pulled over on West Crawford Avenue due to a disturbance.

Bradley, in a written statement, said a number of students on that bus violated the district’s student ridership code of conduct.

On Thursday, District Solicitor Tim Witt declined to go into detail about what the students did or how many were involved. He said the students involved had behavioral issues and were not following directions from the bus driver.

“Any time there are disturbances on the bus, it presents a major safety risk and a distraction for the bus driver,” Witt said. “It can become a big issue and a major safety concern, and something like that could easily get out of hand.”

When parents of students on the bus learned the driver had pulled over, some headed to West Crawford Avenue to retrieve their children.

Connellsville Police Cpl. Bryan Kendi said Thursday that the department has investigated the conduct of those parents, and police expect to file charges against three of them early next week.

He did not indicate what types of charges would be filed, but Bradley said they could include disorderly conduct, institutional vandalism or unauthorized school bus entry.

Bradley said that having parents come to the bus and take their children violated district security protocols. He noted that the bus driver was not authorized to release the students to any adult without confirmation from school personnel.

Kendi confirmed the department also looked into the actions of the bus driver, who has not been identified, and said he followed protocol and will not face criminal charges.

Bradley’s statement indicated that district officials also reviewed the footage of what occurred on the bus, and determined the driver did nothing wrong.

“Notably, the bus driver addressed the situation in a calm manner and violated no district policies,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Bradley said, the district is evaluating whether to take disciplinary actions against the students who were involved in the disturbance on the bus. Students in the school range from kindergarten to fifth grade.

A viral video of the incident shows parents holding the bus doors open as students, some of whom were crying and visibly upset, exited the bus. It was unclear if school personnel were on hand at that point to release children to the appropriate adult.

Following the incident, some parents asked to see the video footage from the bus.

Witt said the video cannot be made public because of federal student privacy concerns. However, because it is a part of an ongoing criminal investigation, he said it could be released after charges are filed.

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