Colorado school bus driver fired after leaving 40 children at the wrong stop in freezing temperatures

A Colorado school bus driver abandoned 40 elementary school-aged students at the wrong stop Monday, frightening them in the cold and dark, school officials and students allege.

The ordeal left young students at Clear Sky Elementary School in Castle Rock distressed, bursting into tears and seeking help from strangers, school officials said. Castle Rock is located approximately 30 miles south of Denver.

The Douglas County School District said the driver, Irving Johnson, was a substitute who did not follow proper protocols.

10-year-old student Caitlyn Zavadil told the NBC affiliate: KUSA of DenverHe said his journey home started later than usual because “he wouldn’t let us leave the school until we stopped talking.”

He skipped the students’ drop-off stops as they set out.

“As we were driving and missing our stops, it felt like we were being kidnapped,” Caitlyn said.

The driver eventually pulled up to the corner of East Wolfensberger Road and Auburn Drive, about two miles from the school, and allegedly told the children to get out of the car in the cold around 5 p.m.

“Right here at this intersection, he stopped about here and said ‘everyone get off my bus,'” Caitlyn said. “And then everyone was getting stressed, like they were crying.”

“Me and my little sister live about two miles from here, so we had no idea what to do,” Caitlyn said.

Monday saw a high of 51F and a low of 19F in Castle Rock. Weather Channel. Caitlyn said she and her sister were so stressed about the situation that they forgot their jackets on the bus and had to stand out in the cold.

A stranger helped the girls, offering a ride and calling their mother. “I was absolutely horrified to have a stranger call me and tell me my kids were in the car and they were crying, screaming, bright red and frozen,” Caitlyn’s mother, Ashley Stark, told KUSA.

The Douglas County School District sent an apology email to the families of the students on the bus on Wednesday, saying the driver was no longer with the district.

“On Monday an aid driver was passing route 253. Relief drivers are full-time employees who step in when needed within our 850-square-mile district,” the district’s Chief Operating Officer Rich Cosgrove said in an email to parents shared with NBC News. “Your child’s route consists of 12 stops. At the third stop on Monday afternoon, the bus is very close to the usual location “It stopped at one place and this caused some confusion. At that time, all 40 students remaining on the bus got off the bus, and many of them got off at the wrong stop.”

“Unfortunately, the driver did not follow protocol in this incident,” the email said. “The driver should have notified the DCSD transportation team immediately.”

Driver Irving Johnson apologized for the incident on Wednesday.

“I just want to apologize. I’m sorry. I wish I had done better,” he told KUSA. He asked the children for directions, saying he did not know the route and his tablet was not working.

When asked if she felt she was doing her job by keeping the children safe, she said: “No, I don’t. I never thought about the fact that I had children getting off the bus and this wasn’t their stop. I was just stunned.”

In his apology email, Cosgrove called the incident “disturbing” and assured that the district is “actively strengthening our safety procedures with all of our drivers.”

The district said some parents have requested to see video footage from the bus during the incident, but the footage will not be released due to an active investigation by the Castle Rock Police Department.