Florida News: School Bus Driver Under Investigation for Making Students Walk to School
A school bus driver for Lealman Innovation Academy is under investigation after she dropped the young passengers 10 blocks away from the school.
School bus driver Angela Williams forced her passengers of 24 kids in between grades six to 12 to walk all the way to school without adult supervision, ABC Action News confirmed.
The reason Williams kicked the students off her bus was because she suspected that her vehicle was contaminated with chemicals.
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"Something is on the bus, some kind of chemical. I feel somebody is pouring some kind of chemical on my bus," Williams told the 911 dispatcher when she called for assistance.
Williams even said that she felt that her life was "threatened," and that someone didn't want her to keep working for the district, which is why she believes that chemicals were put in the engine of her school bus.
However, when the school bus was examined, they found no trace of chemicals. Apparently, Williams called to report a past incident where chemicals were allegedly dumped on her bus. But an examination was also done that time and the results came out clean.
Williams dropped off the kids at 7:35 a.m. EDT, St. Pete Patch confirmed.
A parent of a Lealman Innovation Academy student, Wendi Carron, shared her frustrations about the incident.
"I'm angry, so angry! That someone would drop off children in an area that is not safe at 7 something in the morning to be walking around unsupervised. There is no reason. There is no excuse," Carron explained.
Williams will not be criminally charged. However, she will not be allowed to return to her job as a school bus driver until she is cleared by the investigation, according to Pinellas County School District spokesperson Lisa Wolf.
Williams has been driving for the Pinellas County Schools since 2005 and this is the first time that her record has been tainted with a bad incident.
