MCADOO, Pa. — It was confusion for students and parents from McAdoo Wednesday when they said, without warning, more than a dozen kids were told to get off their school bus after only one stop.
"Enraged would be the right word. I mean, there's enough to worry about nowadays with the kids going to school; getting dumped on the side of the road by a school bus isn't really something a parent should have to really worry about," said Joe Biggs, a parent of a student that was on the bus.
Biggs rushed home after his wife called him, saying their daughter, who was supposed to be getting a ride home from McAdoo-Kelayres Elementary and Middle School on the school bus, had to walk around half a mile with other students to get there.
"I don't know why they decided to just drop them. There's no reasonable explanation for it," said Biggs.
"I wasn't expecting to just get dumped on the side of the road. Like, half of my classmates didn't know where to go," said Biggs' daughter, 12-year-old Annikah German.
With it only being her second day of seventh grade. German says many students on the bus walked home in groups, while others called parents for rides.
"Two of my friends were with me. There's one that lives across the road from me and another one, but his dad had to pick him up," said German.
After several attempts to reach school district leaders, a statement was sent to parents from Hazleton Area Superintendent Brian Uplinger saying, "This is certainly not what our children and families deserve, and I will get to the bottom of this."
Biggs says that's something that must happen immediately.
"No phone calls to the parents, no explanation why. Emails to the superintendent get the same blanket statement, 'We are sorry, it shouldn't have happened. We are looking into it.' It shouldn't have happened, and somebody needs to be held accountable for this," he said.
Newswatch 16 reached out to the Hazleton Area School District and received this statement from the superintendent:
"I was only made aware of this situation recently. We are working diligently with the contractor to find out what exactly took place. This is certainly not what our children or families deserve and I will get to the bottom of it. It should have never happened. We rely on all of our transportation contractors and their drivers to provide a safe and secure transport to and from school. We sincerely apologize for this situation occurring."