The principal of Pine Forest High School said two students were left alongside the road after they refused to comply with a bus driver's orders.
The mothers of the two students said they got off the bus about two weeks ago to avoid another student who was slapping, punching and throwing change, candy and water bottles at them during the afternoon ride home. The students, a 16-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, were left more than 8 miles from their homes next to a patch of woods beside railroad tracks on Melstone Drive near the Goodyear tire plant, the adults said.
Cinda Ammons said her son called his grandfather on his cell phone, and he picked them up. Ammons and the other mother, Jodi Beyer, did not identify their children because they are afraid of retribution.
"You don't leave two kids out in the middle of nowhere, in the woods," Ammons said.
School spokeswoman Theresa Perry said the bus was stopped at a set of railroad tracks when the two high school students left the vehicle.
Pine Forest Principal Cindy McCormic said the bus had only high school students on board. The two students were told not to leave the bus, and the driver tried to get them back on before she pulled away.
"There's nothing else they can do," McCormic said. "She is responsible for those kids on the bus."
McCormic said the school system's policy states that riding a bus is a privilege, not a right.
"Students at all times while riding the school bus will observe the directives of the school bus driver and all other rules outlined in the code of conduct," McCormic read from the policy.
The mothers of the students said the driver was a substitute, and she called 911 before she left the students alongside the road. In a recording of the call provided to The Fayetteville Observer by the parents, a woman reports that there is a fight on her bus. The dispatcher asks her repeatedly where she is located before she tells him "I don't know the name of the street, but it's right along Kelly-Springfield."
After a few minutes, the woman said, "another kid just got off the bus. I'm going to take them back to the school." She asked the dispatcher not to send an officer.
Earlier in the call, the woman said "Do you wanna get back on?" No response is heard.
Ammons and Beyer said their children were afraid that the other student would continue to harm them if they got back on the bus. They questioned why the bus driver canceled her request for an officer, who could have addressed the fight and made sure their children arrived home safely.
The women said no school officials have called them since the incident to inquire about their childrens' welfare or to apologize.
The mothers met with school officials the day after the incident, they said. The bus driver told them she did not know who got off the bus, they said.
"How do you not know that two kids got off?" Beyer asked.
School officials told the women that a video camera in the school bus caught the incident on tape. However, they would not allow the women to view the footage. School officials told them other students could be seen on the tape, Beyer said.
The women said the three students involved in the incident were told they could not ride the bus for the remainder of the school year.
McCormic said the students were disciplined according to Cumberland County board policy. She would not elaborate on the punishment.
Ammons and Beyer have not allowed their children to go to school since they were left alongside the road, they said. The other student threatened them, and they feel unsafe, their mothers said. They have tried to address their concerns with school officials, however, "half of the school board doesn't know what's going on," Ammons said.
"It's frustrating. It's so frustrating," Beyer said. "You feel so small and helpless, like when you have a little baby who is crying and you can't do nothing to help them."
Al Miller, the director of transportation, said an investigation is ongoing. The women said they were told by school officials that the investigation wrapped up more than a week ago
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