School Bus Driver Turned Off AC, Forced Children to Roll Up Windows: Parent

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
May 16, 2019US News
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School Bus Driver Turned Off AC, Forced Children to Roll Up Windows: Parent
Students exit a school bus in a file photo. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)

A school bus driver in Texas allegedly forced children on her bus to roll up the windows and turned off the air conditioning as punishment for the kids being too loud, a parent of some of the kids on the bus said.

Sara Pedder said that all five of her children entered her house on May 14 dripping with sweat.

“My high schooler told me at some point, someone said something about rolling down the windows and she just kept saying, ‘You’re going to burn up until you shut up,'” she told 12 News.

The bus ride for her kids takes one hour each way, she said.

The kids said that the incident started when some of the younger children on the bus were being loud, angering the bus driver.

“She said, ‘Everybody needs to sit down and be quiet, I know it’s hot in here but you can thank your little friends for that.’ They wouldn’t be quiet,” Pedder said.

The children were told that they would get in trouble if they rolled down the windows. The driver ignored the children requesting to roll down the windows.

“She just kept saying, ‘You’re going to burn up until you shut up.’ You need to sit, you need to sit,” Pedder said.

The Silsbee Independent School District has not commented on the allegations but told 12 News that officials are reviewing video footage from the bus.

Police Probe Messages From Driver to Child

Police officers in Ohio were investigating messages sent from a school bus driver to a 10-year-old girl.

“The 54-year-old male suspect engaged in conversation of a ‘grooming’ nature with a juvenile victim,” the Canton Police Department stated in a police report obtained by the Canton Repository.

Grooming means to prepare or train someone for a particular purpose or activity, in this case for a sexual purpose.

Sex traffickers “target victims who have some noticeable vulnerability: emotional neediness, low self-confidence, or economic stress,” according to Ohio State University. “Obtaining information about the victim is key. This can be done through casual conversations with the victim or with parents.”

The Canton Police Department opened the investigation after the girl’s parents tipped them off, reported Fox 8.

The parents said that the messages were conveyed through an application for an online game and were not explicitly sexual but were inappropriate. The bus driver was suspended as the investigation continues.

NTD Photo
Sherri Sessions was arrested after getting into a crash while driving a school bus in Gila County, Arizona, on May 13, 2019. (Gila County Sheriff’s Department)

Bus Driver Arrested for Driving Impaired

A school bus driver in Arizona was arrested this week after police said she was driving impaired when she got into a crash while driving.

Sherri Sessions, 56, got into a crash on the morning of May 13.

It wasn’t clear whether another vehicle was involved, according to KTAR. Sessions was arrested while two students aboard the bus were rushed to a hospital.

Other students were placed on a different bus and went to school.

Sessions was charged with aggravated driving under the influence and 27 other counts, reported KAFF. There were three counts of aggravated assault and 24 counts of endangerment. It was not clear if Sessions had a lawyer.

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