Student says bus driver stranded teens at gas station: 'She told us to go f*** ourselves'
A bus driver in Pennsylvania was arrested on Friday after students were left stranded at a gas station.
Lori Anne Mankos, 44, was charged with 26 counts of endangering the welfare of children and one count of driving under the influence after a video taken by a Northampton Area School student appeared to show her driving recklessly before pulling over and walking away from the bus.
In the footage obtained by WFMZ, the middle and high school students on the bus are heard panicking and threatening to call the school. One of the students, Mason Persiani, told the local outlet just how nerve-racking the ride was.
“There was a turn, a right-hand turn, and when she took it, she was going far too fast,” he said. “She ended up being halfway into the opposing lane of traffic. That was probably the scariest point in the ride.”
Students yelled at the driver to pull the bus over, which she allegedly refused to do.
“She told us to go f*** ourselves and flipped us off,” Persiani said.
The video captures the driver asking the students if they’d like her to pull over and call their parents to come pick them up, to which the students all answered yes. But when she pulled up to a local gas station, the driver reportedly wouldn’t allow any of the nearly 30 students off the front of the bus, forcing them to open the back door to exit. Moments later, the driver exited the bus herself and started walking away.
Northampton Area Schools didn’t immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. However, WFMZ reports that the students were safely picked up from the gas station by their parents.
Mankos is currently in custody at Northampton County Prison.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
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