JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Duval County Public Schools police are investigating an incident involving a school bus headed to Riverside High School, after an unauthorized person was allowed onto the bus while students were on board.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred while the bus was enroute to campus with five to seven students aboard. According to the district, bus surveillance video shows the individual briefly reaching over and touching a student on the knee before exiting less than a minute later. The behavior was reported, prompting the person to get off the bus.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Parents said they are demanding answers and questioning how the situation was allowed to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, it\u2019s not right because it\u2019s children on the bus and they can be a serial killer. It can be anybody. I can imagine how parents feel,\u201d said Sierra Timmes.<\/p>\n Another parent, Jeff Butler, expressed concern about the potential danger to students.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can obviously put somebody else in danger and you can put like all the kids and Dan in itself like I\u2019m hoping like at least he knew the person but like if he didn\u2019t touch a child I don\u2019t even know what to say about that one,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n Victoria Tucker said the individual should never have been permitted to board.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that he should not have been allowed to get on the bus to begin with,\u201d said Tucker.<\/p>\n The district confirmed the bus is operated by one of its contracted transportation vendors, Student Transportation of America. In a statement, Duval County Public Schools said it is \u201cvery concerned that established safety protocols were not followed\u201d by the vendor.<\/p>\n When the bus arrived on campus, administrators ensured the students were safe, provided support services, and notified families.<\/p>\n Donna Porter said she would be devastated if her child had been involved.<\/p>\n \u201cLike, I know if it was my child on the bus I would be like outrageous. I would be in tears that would be in shambles,\u201d said Porter.<\/p>\n Sierra Timmes added that the incident has shaken her trust in student transportation.<\/p>\n \u201c I can\u2019t trust my school bus driver because you let somebody that\u2019s not supposed to be on the bus,\u201d said Timmes.<\/p>\n Porter said parents deserve clear communication from the district and the transportation provider.<\/p>\n \u201c I would definitely want answers.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not the first time Student Transportation of America has faced issues in Duval County. In April of last year, a bus driver was fired after leaving a Duval County student unattended in a vehicle. Just last month, a 14-year-old student was taken into custody after allegedly stabbing another student with a knife on a school bus.<\/p>\n The investigation remains active. District officials say once it is complete, appropriate action will be taken.<\/p>\n Action News Jax has reached out to Student Transportation of America to ask why the bus driver allowed an unauthorized individual on board and to determine what disciplinary action, if any, has been taken. We received the following statement Tuesday morning:<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in the process of actively investigating all the details surrounding this serious matter in collaboration with the Duval County Public Schools Police. As part of our standard process, the driver has been removed from service while we research the incident. The safety of our students is of the utmost importance.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Duval County Public Schools police are investigating an incident involving a school bus headed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,83910,7840,1040,639,32582,83911,83915,56468,29611,116,118,117,13743,634,9476,9475,83912,83914,24471,7842,83913],"class_list":{"0":"post-177459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-at_10","10":"tag-ben_becker","11":"tag-dcps","12":"tag-duval_county","13":"tag-duval_county_public_schools","14":"tag-duval_county_school","15":"tag-extra_news","16":"tag-fox_30","17":"tag-jack_nicholas_brooks","18":"tag-jacksonville","19":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","20":"tag-jacksonville-news","21":"tag-live","22":"tag-local","23":"tag-nicholas","24":"tag-nicholas_brooks","25":"tag-riverside_high_school","26":"tag-student_transportation_of_america","27":"tag-tanika","28":"tag-tanika_hughes","29":"tag-vendor_student_transportation_of_america"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}