Stroud family outraged after school bus incident injures children

A Stroud family is speaking out after a school bus incident left their children injured.

According to a Sac and Fox Nation Tribal Police Department report, the incident occurred in January when the bus driver allegedly hit the air brakes to prove a point, causing multiple injuries to the children on board.

The Incident

Collin and Shelby Birchmier claim the driver used their son to demonstrate the dangers of standing on a moving bus. Despite the bus driver resigning from his route, the family says that action is not enough.

“It was a tough situation,” said Collin Birchmier, the children’s father. “I was very upset, very disappointed, and overwhelmed by how my kids reacted to this.”

The couple claims that during the bus stop, the bus driver allegedly asked their young son to step to the front of the bus. The police report reveals that the driver then allegedly slammed on the air brakes, causing the bus to stop abruptly in response to their son standing in front of his seat.

“Instead of communicating with mom, dad, or the school, it was, ‘I’m going to be the one to teach you a lesson,’ and in that, he caused trauma, both emotional and physical,” said Shelby Birchmier, the children’s mother. "My son was so terrified when he came home, he melted in his dad's arms crying, saying 'I though I was going to die, I thought I was going to go through the windshield and die."

The Damage

The couple said their seven children, who were on the bus at the time, sustained injuries including whiplash and a concussion.

“All of my kiddos actually had what the doctor called soft tissue injuries,” Shelby said. “Instead of protecting my kids and keeping them safe, the bus driver did the exact opposite.”

The Sac and Fox Nation Tribal Police is currently investigating the incident as a potential child endangerment case. While no arrests have been made, the school board voted last month to approve the bus driver’s resignation. However, Shelby claims the driver is still employed by the school district. The district could not confirm the claim since it’s a personnel issue.

“I’m not letting it go by any means,” she said. “My kids are frightened anytime they have any interaction with him at the school.”

Investigators are working to download video footage from the school bus to determine exactly what happened during the incident.

“My kids, I had seven go to the ER, two of them have other follow up appointments, where's reimbursement for that, for what your bus driver did,” said Shelby. “They poked the wrong mama bear this time because I’m not going to shut up, I’m not going to sit down and I’m not going to let them do this to my kids and not have any kind of repercussions.”

The Stroud Public Schools superintendent told police that the bus driver did admit to the incident, though no criminal charges have been filed at this time.