School bus driver refuses to open windows on hot day

EVERETT, WASHINGTON — Dramatic new video is raising questions about an incident on board a Washington state school bus where a driver refused to let kids roll down the windows on a very hot day.

Several students got sick and say they were traumatized by the incident.

A sweltering hot ride home.  The bus driver refuses to let children open the windows, saying they'll be home soon enough.  Then the ride home reaches a boiling point as one student faints.

A security camera on the bus captures another student pleading for help: "bus driver, Amaya passed out on the bus. She's too hot."

The bus driver again refuses to budge:  "Okay, right now can you fan her?  Okay, fan her."

The other students again ask to open windows but the driver refuses, saying that alarms will go off.

Mary Waggoner with Everett Public Schools says it happened April 19th -- the driver was taken of the route, but the next day the ride was not much smoother with two more kids saying they felt ill.

"I think students were upset from what they experienced they day before and were a little unsure about being on the bus," says Waggoner.

Two tough trips have one aunt of a student asking: "why couldn't you stop pull the bus over and stay pulled over and check on that little girl-- why couldn't the second they were screaming saying 'she's not waking up' -- call 911?"

The video also shows the driver allowing students, including the one who became ill, to get off the bus at the wrong stop.

The school district says that was the wrong decision and the bus company says the driver is no longer an employee.

Cox Media Group