School bus driver fired after reportedly dropping elementary students off at cemetery

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (KKTV/Gray News) – A Colorado substitute school bus driver was fired after an investigation into reports of elementary school students being dropped off at a cemetery instead of their normal stops.

Multiple media reports and social media posts made claims kids from Clear Sky Elementary in the Douglas County School District were dropped off at a Castle Rock cemetery after school Monday.

Parents of the children said they were left reeling after what they said was a terrifying experience that felt like a kidnapping.

“The kids were petrified. The fear in their eyes. All the kids said that they felt like they were being kidnapped,” said Ashley Stark, whose 7- and 10-year-old daughters were on the bus.

The substitute bus driver with the Douglas County School District had reportedly dropped 40 students from Clear Sky Elementary School in Castle Rock near a cemetery before leaving them there, miles from their homes and their school.

“That night she was very hysterical. Didn’t want to kind of be alone, because she said she felt like she was being kidnapped,” echoed Tony Martin, father of an 8-year-old on the bus.

The parents told CBS Denver that their children told them the bus driver was driving erratically and yelling at them before forcing them to get off the bus at the wrong stop and in 30-degree weather.

“My kids were left stranded and abandoned on the side of the road at dark, and a stranger brought my children home,” Stark said.

The district confirmed the incident happened but is still investigating the circumstances around it, including watching video taken from the school bus.

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