‘We got a mad man out there’: Chesterfield police investigate after bus driver allegedly threatens students with broom

Chesterfield, Va. (WWBT) - Chesterfield police investigate after parents say a bus driver threatened their kids with a broom.

Police said they responded to a disturbance just before 6 p.m. Thursday.

“The kids were still shooken up like crying. Still shaken,” Lynn Lewis said. She’s the mother of two kids on the bus.

“My 7-year-old actually was crying last night before he went to bed saying, ‘Mommy, please, I don’t want to go back on the bus again. What happens if that bad man is there?’” she said.

Lynn and her husband, Andrew, said they knew something was wrong when the bus was an hour and 30 minutes late.

When they finally arrived at the bus stop, nearly 15 kids from Swift Creek Elementary rushed off the bus with tears in their eyes.

“Our son, who never cries, came running towards me hysterical - first thing I’m shouting is ‘What’s wrong? What happened?’” Lynn Lewis said.

Instead of taking the kids straight home, she said the substitute driver pulled over, and the alleged threats came.

“He then put the bus in stop, took the broom that was on the bus, started going up and down the aisles telling the kids that if they didn’t shut up that he was going to use the broom and he was going to beat all of them until they were bleeding,” Lynn Lewis said.

The parents questioned the driver, who they say slammed the bus doors and sped off without saying a word.

That’s when they called the police.

“We got a madman out there,” Andrew Lewis said. “You know, the police officer’s response was, ‘everybody has their bad days.’ But the man looked to be in his late 40s, 50s and everybody has a bad day. I get that, but not around little kids. Not acting like that.”

Police are investigating, but Andrew said a shortage of bus drivers shouldn’t outrank kids’ safety.

“I want them to review all of the video tape[s], all the statements taken. And appropriate action needs to be taken not only up to and including reviewing their own hiring policies,” Andrew Lewis said.

Chesterfield County Public Schools spokesman, Shawn Smith, said the person involved is no longer driving with the school division as police investigate.

Counselors were also on hand Thursday for the students involved.

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