SAN ANTONIO -- Panic on a school bus lead to a group of students jumping from the emergency exit. It's one of two recent cases of students trying to escape a San Antonio Independent School District school bus, one of which was still moving.
Security cameras rolled as a group of boisterous students on board a J.T. Brackenridge bus begin screaming with panic. The students claimed the driver had threatened them, although the footage reveals she ordered them to calm down and said she was heading back to the district, as is protocol.
As the driver stopped the bus, some of the students opened the emergency hatch and jumped out.
“Have you ever seen a horror movie before, where everyone screams because you see a killer?” asked one student who was on board that bus. “Well, that's what it sounded like. Everyone was just screaming and screaming”
The incident, from April 1, was the first of two in the past two months.
Just a few weeks later, another breach took place, as a student jumped from a moving bus full of special needs students.
According to the district, it was that student’s third attempt.
SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price calls that latest jump is a rare breach of protocol, and that the SAISD employees on board were either suspended or left the district.
She also said, while they’ve never seen a student hurt, this happens 7-8 times a year.
“The fact that someone would be getting off the bus and walking home, or not going back to the bus, is very serious,” said Price.
According to Price, bus drivers are trained to stop the bus and make sure the kids on board are safe, but if a student runs for it, the best they can do is call dispatch and ask for SAISD police support.
Price recommends parents get to know their child’s bus driver by either meeting them at drop-off as frequently as possible, or at school where the kids are picked up at the end of the day.
