Current:Home > ContactOklahoma school bus driver faces kidnapping charges after refusing to let students leave -Momentum Wealth Path
Oklahoma school bus driver faces kidnapping charges after refusing to let students leave
View
Date:2025-04-27 13:54:33
An Oklahoma bus driver is facing kidnapping charges after allegedly refusing to release students from his vehicle until they were quiet.
Surveillance video from inside the bus shows the driver, 68-year-old Thomas Young, refusing to allow anyone to exit and after a tense dispute with a few middle school students Friday afternoon in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb east of Tulsa.
"Everybody be quiet I'm not moving until I don't hear any speaking," Young can be heard yelling in the video. "You think you can get away with stuff. I run my bus a certain way I don't care what the other bus drivers do. You obey me."
One student told the driver that they needed to be home in 10 minutes to which he replied "I don't care be quiet."
Fast food stabbing:Jack in the Box employee stabbed outside of restaurant in California
Bus driver charged with kidnapping, child abuse
The Broken Arrow Police Department charged Young with kidnapping and child abuse for the incident, according to FOX 23.
Young had been a driver for the school for slightly over a year and received no complaints or similar incidents prior to Friday, according to the districts Chief Communications Officer Tara Thompson. Friday was his second day taking that specific bus route and he was running 30 to 45 minutes late.
Thompson said that while bus drivers do have the authority to enforce school rules, Young did not follow the training protocols while attempting to quiet the students.
The driver eventually stopped his vehicle on the side of a main road where students then tried to exit the bus, Thompson said. Video shows banging sounds which Thompson identified as parents trying to get their kids off the vehicle.
"There are students who open the back of the bus and jump out while the bus is moving which is a huge safety issue," Thompson said. "There were lots of things that went wrong in the scenario. The students didn't respond well, the driver didn't respond well."
'They could be anywhere':4 men, including murder suspect, escape central Georgia jail
'A sad situation'
Police Capt. Josh McCoy told FOX23 that Young endangered the children by driving at low speed while some students were moving.
"Holding the kids against their will, and the fact that those children were jumping from the school bus while he continued to drive eastbound, even at a slow speeds, endangered them and put them in a dangerous situation," McCoy said, according to FOX23.
Officers then arrived at the scene and immediately arrested Young, Thompson said. He was terminated from his job by the school due to his charges.
The school has received complaints from parents since the incident, Thompson said. The school also provided counselors to students upset by the events, she added. School officials are working to identify which students were inciting some of the issues that were against district policies, such as the movement around the bus and profanity.
"I don't think anyone woke up that day thinking that was how the day was going to end. It's just, it's sad. It's just a sad situation," Thompson said.
veryGood! (3)
Related
- This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
- Why Suki Waterhouse Took a Bout of Celibacy Before Dating Robert Pattinson
- High school teacher suspended for performing on porn website: I do miss my students
- Pennsylvania chocolate factory fined for failing to evacuate before fatal natural gas explosion
- Alex Murdaugh’s murder appeal cites biased clerk and prejudicial evidence
- Baltimore police ask for help IDing ‘persons of interest’ seen in video in Morgan State shooting
- Liverpool, West Ham remain perfect in Europa League, newcomer Brighton picks up first point
- Queen and Adam Lambert kick off tour with pomp, vigor and the spirit of Freddie Mercury
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- Signs of progress as UAW and Detroit automakers continue active talks
Ranking
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- There are 22 college football teams still unbeaten. Here's when each will finally lose.
- Marc Anthony and Wife Nadia Ferreira Heat Up the Red Carpet at Billboard Latin Music Awards 2023
- Russian journalist who staged on-air protest against Ukraine war handed prison sentence in absentia
- John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
- Why Ukraine's elite snipers, and their U.S. guns and ammo, are more vital than ever in the war with Russia
- Bodies from Prigozhin plane crash contained 'fragments of hand grenades,' Russia says
- 2 pollsters killed, 1 kidnapped in Mexico; cartel message reportedly left with victims
Recommendation
Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
Dramatic video shows plane moments before it crashed into Oregon home, killing 22-year-old instructor and 20-year-old student pilot
Drug delivery service leader gets 30 years in fentanyl poisoning deaths of 3 New Yorkers
Pat Fitzgerald sues Northwestern after firing in wake of hazing probe
Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
Geri Halliwell-Horner leans into 'smart and brilliant' Anne Boleyn character in novel
NYC mayor to residents of Puebla, Mexico: ‘Mi casa es su casa,’ but ‘there’s no more room’
3 announced as winners of Nobel chemistry prize after their names were leaked