More than three dozen students from Collège catholique Samuel-Genest were left stranded in an east Ottawa parking lot by their school bus driver Friday, according to the local school bus consortium.
The bus was abandoned that afternoon in the parking lot of the Consortium de transport scolaire d’Ottawa (CTSO), near the St. Laurent Shopping Centre.
The students were headed home after school to the Vanier neighbourhood, the CTSO said, when the driver drove back to the bus depot on Coventry Road, parked his vehicle, and left.
“I was mad, I was pissed,” said Cristina Carvalho, whose 14-year-old daughter was on the bus.
Carvalho said she was picking up her other child when she received a text from the CTSO telling her what had happened.
When she arrived at the depot, she said students were still giving statements to Ottawa police.
“I wanted to get the incident number with the police because I do plan to press charges,” she said, adding “it’s not the first time” she’s had issues with this specific driver.
Carvalho said she filed two separate complaints about the driver to the consortium last year, alleging he once said “f–k you” to her daughter and also refused to pick her up on several occasions.
Approximately 40 students were on the bus when they were abandoned at around 2:45 p.m. Friday, said Patrick Pharand, the consortium’s director.
The CTSO communicated with parents, Pharand said, while a replacement bus driver took over to drive any students who remained to their designated stops. He said the company’s regional manager was on site, along with a CTSO staff member.
The students “were in [good] hands at all times,” he wrote in an email.
Some parents came to pick up their children, Pharand said. He added the driver has since been terminated.
“The driver won’t be driving a school bus [ever] again,” Pharand said.
Collège catholique Samuel-Genest is a Grade 7-12 school with the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE), Ottawa’s French Catholic school board.
In a French-language statement, the CECCE said they do not condone “any behaviour that could compromise the safety or well-being of students.”
The board declined an interview, citing the transportation consortium’s investigation.
The Ottawa Police Service told CBC they were also investigating the matter.
