School bus ride from hell: Students, parent climb through bus windows; parent breaks glass on door, gets arrested

You might call it a school bus ride from hell.

“Everybody was screaming and stuff because they were excited to get off the bus,” a 12-year-old student told KCRA-TV after his ride Monday aboard a homebound Calaveras (California) Unified School District bus.

‘Parents are now sending their children to school to be parented instead of parenting their children at home, and that is a concern.’

The student told KCRA the bus stopped when another student climbed out of the bus through a window.

“That’s when the bus driver was like, ‘Sit down, roll up the windows,'” the student noted to the station.

The student also noted to KCRA that the driver told those aboard the bus they would have to wait for law enforcement before getting off it.

Parents who spoke with the station said students remained on the stopped bus for about an hour as more parents began arriving.

Nichole Wellington told KCRA her son called her from the bus and was scared — and she drove to the bus and asked the driver to release her son.

“I went right to the door, and I was like, ‘Dude, open the door. Let me have my kid.’ And he’s like, ‘I’m not doing that,'” Wellington noted to the station.

Wellington added to KCRA that she soon gave her son permission to climb out of the bus through a window while she waited outside.

“If he would have handled that situation and gave the parents their kids that were there, I think it probably would have went a little bit differently than it did,” Wellington noted to the station.

KCRA said video provided by a student aboard the bus shows a student climbing out of the bus through a window and a parent later climbing into the bus through a window — and confronting the driver.

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The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office noted to the station that deputies responded to a disturbance involving a parent and the bus driver: “During the incident, the parent struck the bus door, breaking the glass. The parent was ultimately taken into custody at the School District’s request for vandalism.”

The sheriff’s office added to KCRA that some passengers also were reported to have exited the bus through open windows, and that students should only use a bus window as an exit during an emergency.

Another parent, Rebecca Glover, whose two children also were aboard the bus, told the station she instructed her kids to remain seated and wait — and that she believes the driver was trying to keep students safe.

“There was not just one child they had to think of,” Glover told KCRA. “They had to think of every single child on that bus at that time.”

The school district told the station that the incident began with concerns over student behavior but declined to provide additional details.

“Yesterday, student behavior concerns on a district bus escalated and ultimately required law enforcement involvement,” Superintendent Kassie Meeks said in a statement, according to KCRA. “As a result of the incident, one bus route has been impacted today, Tuesday, August 25, 2026.”

The station added that the incident also raised questions among parents regarding how similar situations should be handled in the future.

Wellington told KCRA she believes another adult aboard buses to manage student behavior could help drivers better focus on the roads.

“I do feel that maybe that bus driver, especially when he’s driving, should not have to deal with all those kids by himself,” Wellington also noted to the station.

But Glover told KCRA she believes more responsibility should fall on students and their families: “Parents are now sending their children to school to be parented instead of parenting their children at home, and that is a concern.”

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