An Ottawa school bus driver who lost his cool has also lost his job.
Kyle Gordon tells Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Evan Solomon Show he saw a Campeau Bus Lines driver slamming on the brakes and screaming at children on the bus as he pulled up to his 8-year-old son’s stop in Nepean, Monday afternoon.
“The bus driver started screaming, his voice shrieking, screaming at the children,” Gordon says. “I didn’t know who he was screaming at but it turns out he was screaming at my son. When he hit the brakes, he knocked my son down into the aisle. He, and my niece and nephew, are too afraid to go back on the bus now.”
He says he didn’t know, at first, that the driver was screaming at his son, but then saw the man “towering over” the boy and swearing at him.
“Every child who got off that bus was terrified.”
Gordon’s son has been diagnosed with autism. He says his son had trouble with the noise on school buses in the past, but has been comfortable and well-behaved while riding the bus this year.
Gordon says it appears one of his son’s sensory ticks angered the bus driver that day.
“My son was sitting down on the bus and he was waving a bottle in front of his own face,” he says. “A lot of children on the spectrum do things to acknowledge their senses. He’s done this for a long time. But, he was being quiet and keeping to himself.”
Gordon approached the driver to tell him he can’t talk to children that way.
“He said, ‘they can talk to me that way so why can’t I talk to them that way,’ and I said, “you’re in a position of power and trust to these children, and you’re terrifying them.’”
Gordon says the driver then threatened to punch him, and attempted to kick him.
But that’s not how the bus company tells the story.
A spokesperson for Campeau Bus Lines tells CFRA the driver had to pull over and tell the child to stop hitting another child on the bus, and that the child was throwing his water bottle before arriving at his stop. The spokesperson also says the father was confrontational and aggressive, and attempted to board the bus.
The company says the driver did not know the boy was autistic.
Campeau admits the driver lost his temper, and the company and the driver made the mutual decision to part ways Wednesday.
Speaking to CTV News, Gordon says he had not heard the driver’s side of the story, but adds it doesn’t excuse the driver’s behavior.
He says he's happy to hear the driver will no longer be driving his son's bus, and he hopes Campeau can ensure it doesn't happen again.
Campeau says their training will be reviewed. Currently, drivers for the bus line get 45 hours of training and another 25 hours of refresher courses throughout the school year, which includes training on how to handle children with special needs.
With files from CTV's Katie Griffin.