A West Baton Rouge Parish school bus driver and aide were captured on video berating students and confronting parents who were on the phone with their children, with multiple recordings now circulating on social media.

In the videos, the driver can be heard using explicit profanity in front students and a parent who was on the phone with their child during the incident.

"Whoever that is on the f*cking phone, come get our as from over there by the office with the f*cking phone in," the driver says in one clip. "You people don't want this drama, I don't give a f*ck about this drama."

The driver also tells a student to relay a message to their parent: "Tell your mama, whoever that f*ck that is, they got the wrong one, baby."

In another recording captured after the initial confrontation, the driver can be heard saying "I don't give a f*ck about the job."

The aide, standing in the bus aisle, told students "I'm from the ghetto" and "don't play with me." She also confronted a parent on the phone, telling them to handle their child. At one point, the aide told students that if they were thinking about suing, they couldn't.

After the bus arrived at the DS Bus depot, a female employee demanded students stop recording. "Turn your camera off. I mean, turn it off. I said turn it off," she says.

The incident occurred on Bus 234, which serves students from multiple grade levels.

A parent who spoke with WBR Independent said his daughter was on the phone with him during part of the incident and he could hear the confrontation as it happened.

"From what I understand, the girl just couldn't go to her house until the CPS cleared her," the parent said, describing a situation involving another student that appeared to trigger the outburst. "And that's it... It was hollering and cursing. But they just went off."

Student Disciplined, Told to Delete Video

Following the incident, the parent said his daughter received after-school detention and a one-day bus suspension. He said she was also told to delete the recordings or face further discipline.

"The next day, someone called and said, look, they said they're going to suspend you if you don't delete. They're going to make you delete it," the parent said.

He said his daughter was not the student who recorded the incident.

"She didn't have nothing. It was other students took it. And they were just assuming, because she was on the phone, that they saw it with a phone," he said. "But I think four or five different people sent messages to her with the video."

The parent said the school has not contacted the family about the underlying incident involving the bus driver and aide and that attempts to reach the principal have gone unanswered.

"They haven't called us. They just sent something home and said she was being disrespectful," he said. "From the video, I didn't see anything disrespectful."

District, Bus Company Response

West Baton Rouge Parish Schools Superintendent Dr. Chandler Smith confirmed the district is aware of the videos.

"We have been in contact with DS Bus, our transportation provider, and they are handling the situation," Smith said in an email. "I can't speak to this particular employee as they do not work for us and it's a personnel matter for DS Bus."

Smith declined to answer questions about whether any students were told to delete video recordings of the incident, stating that "all of your questions involve a student discipline event and/or a personnel issue with DS Bus."

"I am not allowed to speak to personnel issues for DS Bus or specific student discipline," Smith said.

The district's student handbook prohibits students from having cell phones on buses. The handbook also notes that buses "may be equipped with video/audio recording devices that may be used to monitor activities of students, drivers, aides, and anyone who may board the bus."

Smith also declined to release onboard bus camera footage, stating he is 'not allowed to release any information related to student discipline or surveillance video of our buses due to security reasons.

DS Bus did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Ongoing Concerns

The parent said Bus 234 has had chronic issues beyond this incident, including late pickups and staffing shortages.

"It's always something with that bus company," he said. "She's always late. And we got to call to find out where they at. And it's just always a rigmarole."

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