School bus driver in Colorado intentionally slams brakes to teach kids a lesson | Video

Video from inside the bus, first obtained this week by station KRDO, captured the jolt that sent the Castle Rock Elementary School students’ faces into the backs of seats in front of them in Colorado Springs on March 1, the NY Post reports.

Brian Fitzgerald, 61, the substitute bus driver who was dropping off the students, ranging from kindergarteners to sixth-graders, at the end of the school day, is heard in the footage berating the children before brake-checking them.

“You guys need to be in your seats,” Fitzgerald tells his pint-size passengers, before adding, “You guys want to see how dangerous that is?”

Fitzgerald then slams on the brakes at 9mph (14km/h), causing the children to cry out, “Ow! Oh, my God!”

The driver tells the students, “Did you get that? That’s why you need to be in your seat, turn around and sit down properly.”

A child is heard asking, “Why would he do that?”

Another girl at the back of the bus later gets on the phone with a parent and complains about the bus driver, saying his actions have left one of her schoolmates bleeding from the cheek.

When that girl got off the bus at her stop, she burst into tears. Her father, who was picking her up, told Fitzgerald that his daughter was hurt and warned him that he should “go easy on the brakes”.

In the video, Fitzgerald tries to defend himself, accusing the children of “running all over the place” — a claim that some of the kids vehemently deny.

Fitzgerald appears to admit acting intentionally, telling the parent, “I was coming to a stop and I hit the brakes hard because they were not listening.”

Mum Lauren Thomason said her son, who is in the fourth grade and was on the bus with Fitzgerald that afternoon, came home shaking and crying hysterically.

“He just said, ‘The bus driver … he hit the brakes and I hit my head and my buddy, he’s bleeding,’” Ms Thomason recalled.

The boy’s mother said she was especially concerned for her son because he had recently suffered a concussion after falling on ice.

After receiving complaints from multiple parents, the Douglas County School District sidelined Fitzgerald from driving while conducting an internal investigation, which ultimately found that “the driver did brake check the students”.

Fitzgerald was hired by the school district in October 2022, and March 1 was the first day he was driving a general education bus on his own after finishing his training, reported KRDO.

Fitzgerald penned a letter to school officials in which he defended his action by blaming “unruly” children for failing to sit down, and pointing to “a historical pattern of improper student management” on the bus route.

He concluded his missive on a conciliatory note, however, saying he was sorry for his actions.

“I am still 100 per cent responsible for my actions in trying to both educate and control student on the bus,” Fitzgerald conceded. “Being new driver, I did not make the best decisions and if I were able to redo what I did I would rethink my decisions.”

Fitzgerald has since been fired from his job and faces 30 misdemeanour charges of child abuse, including one count of child abuse with bodily injuries, which carries a sentence of close to a year in jail.

The former bus driver is due in court for his first appearance in May.

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission