MCCRACKEN COUNTY, Ky. (KFVS) – An incident in McCracken County has parents angry and students scared: Just three days after the start of school, more than a dozen students were left behind by their bus driver in a church parking lot.

It happened Friday afternoon in the McCracken County School District.

Parents said they had received panicked calls from their children, but no one from the school.

Before the students landed in a church parking lot, their driver said he drove into a pole and drove through several ditches while trying to turn the bus around. Many of them got off at the first opportunity.

“There was just a whole parking lot full of kids and she let them get out and just walked away,” said mother Lacie Moore.

Moore said she rushed to the parking lot to pick up her children because they had already called her before they got off the bus.

“She didn’t know when they would get off the bus because the bus driver hadn’t let anyone off yet – it was already almost an hour past the scheduled time,” Moore explained.

“The driver drove in circles, drove into ditches and into a pole,” said another mother, Amanda Tyler.

Tyler tells the same story. Her sons Jeremy and Jakobe also got off the bus.

“They got off the bus, she closed the doors and drove away,” Tyler said.

“You should be able to trust these people to bring the children home safely,” Tyler added.

Superintendent Josh Hunt told Heartland News that 16 students got off the bus. He explained that the church stop is part of the normal route, but few students get off there.

Hunt said the route was changed due to roadworks because a student had boarded a different bus. He said this information was not communicated to students, which he said caused some anxiety.

The McCracken County School District reviewed video from the bus Monday morning.

According to the chief, the video showed the bus driver hitting a pole in a parking lot while attempting to turn around. He described it as a minor impact that caused no injuries or damage to the bus.

He admitted that there was a communication breakdown when the students decided to leave the bus.

“Probably our biggest mistake as a school system at that time was that we didn’t immediately report by radio or phone that this was happening,” Hunt said.

However, he said the bus driver should not have left the students there alone.

“Even if you just stay there and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to stay here until someone answers’ – as a new driver, that’s a protocol that was missed. I mean, it didn’t happen, so that’s our downfall and that’s our responsibility,” Hunt explained.

As head of the district, he wants to take responsibility and promises the parents that the matter will be taken care of.

“We’re learning from the situation, growing from it, and that’s a big deal for us,” Hunt said. “It’s not that we’re saying, ‘Oh, this is happening, what are you doing about it?’ It’s a big deal for us that the students weren’t being taken to the places they were supposed to be taken — that’s what the parents are trusting us with.”

“I was angry when I learned that they didn’t care about my children’s safety,” Moore said.

“They didn’t even make sure all the children got home safely,” Tyler said.

Both mothers said their children will not be riding the bus for a while.

Superintendent Hunt said a new bus driver had been assigned to this route.

All rights reserved.