A DeSoto County school bus driver has been placed on leave after refusing to let elementary students exit the vehicle.
First reported by WREG, a Facebook Live video recorded by a bus rider’s mother shows Center Hill Elementary School students being trapped on a bus with a driver who would not open the door to let the children exit — even after parents demanded for their kids to be released.
Throughout the video, which can be viewed below, children can be seen crying, screaming, and calling for their parents as some escape through the bus’s windows.
The DeSoto County School District has since relieved the driver, who they say is a substitute, of her duties and has assigned another to transport the students to and from school.
“Per district procedure, the bus driver is on administrative leave as the matter is being reviewed. She was a substitute driver for that route, and a new driver has been assigned to the bus route for the remainder of the school year,” a statement from the school district reads.
The incident took place in the Braybourne subdivision in Olive Branch. It has been reported that the driver stopped the bus when a student used her cell phone to call her parent after being instructed not to.
