School Bus Driver Refuses to Let Student Board, is Placed on Leave

DALLAS — A school bus driver here has been placed on leave after a video posted on social media showed him refusing to allow a student to board the bus while standing in the middle of a busy road, The Dallas Morning News reports.

The video, which was posted on Facebook by Yazmin Rojas on Tuesday, shows a student standing in front of the bus repeatedly asking the bus driver to open the door. In the video, the driver drives the bus forward while the student walks backward in front of the bus as several vehicles pass by. The driver then stops after a bystander bangs on the side of the vehicle, yelling at him to stop the bus. The bystander begins to take photos of the driver and is later heard in the video saying that he was calling the police. According to the Facebook post, the incident occurred in Far North Dallas, near Spring Valley Rd. and Preston Rd.

The student, who has not been named, told NBC 5 Dallas Fort Worth that the bus driver doesn't stop for students even if he sees them coming, and that he didn't want that to happen to him this time.

Robyn Harris, a spokesperson for Dallas Independent School District, told Dallas Morning News that the driver, who also remains unnamed, is one of the district’s employees and that the incident is under investigation. The district has been operating its own bus service since 2017, according to the news source, and has experienced some challenges, including a bus driver shortage.

As School Bus Fleet previously reported, the district transitioned its service from the struggling school bus agency, Dallas County Schools, in 2017, after residents voted to dissolve the agency for experiencing significant debt and becoming embroiled in a stop-arm camera controversy.

Watch the video posted by Rojas on Facebook below.