WASHINGTON, Pa. — A local school district is making changes after videos of a bus driver screaming at elementary school students got a lot of attention on social media.
The incident at the center of the widely-shared videos happened Wednesday afternoon on a bus full of Washington Park Elementary School students between the 3rd and 6th grades. In the video, driver John King repeatedly shouts at the kids to “shut up.”
“Bunch a morons, dude. Like, I’m driving a giant bus and yinz won’t shut up,” he said.
In other parts of the video, he’s heard threatening to write students up, “daring” the district to confront him, pondering quitting and saying he hopes they “handcuff” parents for truancy if the kids can’t get to school.
Some on social media are calling for King to be fired. One person wrote, “this bus driver has no business being around children with that temper,” while another said, “at the end of the day, no one should be speaking to anyone’s child like that.”
Channel 11 spoke to King about what led up to the outburst, and he said the students were out of control.
“A little girl got off the bus crying, and I went about a block from there and within that block I had about the back third of the bus standing up, walking around doing whatever they wanted,” he said.
King claims the kids’ actions have become a safety issue.
“It’s been a build-up to this. A lot happens on these buses, and none of it really gets addressed in any kind of meaningful way to the point where it’s an absolute safety hazard,” he told us.
The Washington School District says it’s investigating the incident alongside the bus company, GG&C.
King expects to be back on the job Thursday. But the district says there will be changes. The superintendent says another adult will be on the bus Thursday morning and afternoon.
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