Onlookers horrified as school bus driver plows through deep floodwater: ‘You’re gambling with kids’ lives’

A school bus driver shocked his Illinois community by driving a bus filled with children through dangerously deep floodwaters — and one resident accidentally captured the stunt on video.

Trista Ross said she “just couldn’t believe it” when she spotted the submerged vehicle outside her Monmouth, Ill. home while filming the flooding from heavy rains in the area on Wednesday morning.

"I was like, 'Oh my god, it's going!" Ross told WQAD. "All the other cars and semis were turning around. The school bus driver was going through it.”

Ross said at its deepest point, the water was high enough to reach the bottom of the STOP signs. The video shows the water coming up to the hood of the bus.

As shocked as she was to witness the driver’s misguided maneuver, though, Ross hasn’t even realized at the time that the bus contained students from the Monmouth-Roseville School District on their way to Lincoln Elementary School.

According to Ross, though, it was the wrong move either way. “I don't even care if you did or didn't have kids. It's stupid to go through it at all,” she said. ‘First of all, it's not your bus. And second, it's just a dumb decision."

That same morning, Ross’s video made its way to school district Superintendent Ed Fletcher, who was disappointed and concerned, and apparently questioned the driver about his risky behavior.

“I was pretty upset when I saw that video, and I found out it was our bus and there were kids on it," Fletcher told WQAD. “"I said, 'Is that our bus?,” he added in an interview with Local 4 News. “My second question was, 'Were there kids on the bus?'"

“To be honest with you, the bus driver thought, 'Well I can get through this,'“ Fletcher added. “And I never would've come to that conclusion, nor would I think many other drivers.”

Fletcher said “the situation is being dealt with per school policy,” but cannot disclose any details about potential discipline toward the driver “because it’s a personnel issue.” Local 4 News reports that police are also investigating.

More importantly, he confirmed that none of the children on the bus were injured, nor did any water get inside the vehicle.

But parents and faculty aren’t so quick to forget the incident just because the kids made it to safety. “You're gambling with the kids' lives," said Ross. “There's a lot of concerned parents right now and upset parents.”

“Sign or no sign only a[n] idiot would drive thru that!,” commented one parent on Facebook. “If they are by themselves whatever but when you[re] responsible for other kiddos you should never take that chance!”

Fletcher also sees the driver’s misjudgment as a teaching moment.

"[I'm] working with my transportation director and meeting with my bus drivers and showing them this video," he said. "It's a what-not-to-do when you come across water in the road."

He said he appreciates the driver’s apology, but he’d rather drive straight to the heart of the matter. “Sorry only goes so far,” Fletcher said. “It's really something that is unacceptable. We don't ever want to see it happen again in Monmouth-Roseville."

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• 6-year-old says bully threw him out of moving school bus: 'It has turned our world upside down'

• Father angrily confronts school officials after daughter, 5, is left behind by school bus — again

• Student says bus driver stranded teens at gas station: 'She told us to go f*** ourselves'

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