SUMMIT HILL -- Newswatch 16 has learned that Panther Valley School District officials are investigating allegations of a bus driver coming to a sudden stop Thursday morning. The incident jostled several kids on the bus, so much so, that some say they were injured.
The district will only say this: the incident happened in Summit Hill borough Thursday morning.
About 30 students were on their way to Panther Valley Middle School when for some reason their bus came to a sudden and complete stop injuring several students.
Administrators are now looking into why the bus filled with students came to a sudden stop.
"The bus came to a rather quick stop. Some of our students were jostled around and when they were brought to the middle school they reported that they felt uncomfortable and injured," said Panther Valley School District Superintendent Dennis Kergick.
Every student on the bus was checked out by a school nurse and parents were notified. 23 students on that bus went home early, many of them being checked out by their doctors. Eight reported minor injuries from that sudden stop.
"Some of them bumped their head or face on the seat that was immediately in front of them. Some bumped their head on the windows. Some students jolted forward or backward," said Kergick.
Jesse Marshall of Lansford picked up his daughter from the 7th grade and had heard about this morning's incident.
"The way I heard it was the kids were getting crazy on the bus and the bus driver did that to stop them from getting crazy on the bus, which she probably could have just pulled over and said, 'Hey,'" said Marshall.
Marshall's daughter doesn't ride that bus, but these allegations still have him upset.
"It`s scary. It`s scary because it could have been her. Some of those kids could have been seriously injured," said Marshall.
Panther Valley contracts their busing out to Kistler Transportation.
The driver is now not allowed to run buses for the district pending the investigation.
Parents say they're just anxious to learn what happened on that early morning bus ride.
"Yes, definitely, I certainly hope they`re all ok, and I`m anxious to find out what occurred here," said Michele Gelches of Summit Hill.
Summit Hill Borough Police are also investigating the incident. We attempted to contact the bus company directly, but our attempts were unsuccessful.
The district says they're not sure if there was a camera on that bus, but they are interviewing students to determine what went wrong.
