A Pennsylvania school bus driver is facing a slew of charges after she allegedly drove the vehicle erratically and flipped-off students while telling them to “go f**k yourselves,” before abandoning them and the bus at a gas station.
Last week, Lori Ann Mankos was driving middle and high school students home when some of the kids noticed the driver wasn’t following her usual route and she appeared to be “agitated.”
“The major thing on the ride that threw everybody off was when there was a right-hand turn and when she took it, she was going far too fast,” student Mason Persiani told WFMZ News.
“She ended up being halfway into the opposing lane of traffic,” Persiani said.
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“That was probably the scariest point of the ride, and at the point my heart was racing. I was pretty nervous.”
The news station obtained video footage from students on the bus.
“Call the school, this is not even funny,” a female student said in the video. “Pull over!”
Persiani told WFMZ News the driver refused to pull the bus over to the side of a road.
“She told us to ‘Go f**k yourselves,’” Persiani claimed. “And then flipped us off, you know, stuck her hand in the air and flipped us off.”
The bus driver is then heard in the video asking the students if they wanted her to stop the bus.
“Do you want, if I just pulled over and called everybody’s parents to pick them up?” the driver asked.
“Yes,” students replied.
The driver eventually parked at a Sunoco gas station, handed the keys to a gas station employee and walked away from the scene.
Joseph Kovalchik, Northampton School District superintendent, said officials are “extremely upset” but “very thankful” no one was hurt. He said the district has been contracting with the bus company for more than 20 years, and nothing like that has happened before.
Mankos, 44, was charged with child endangerment, driving under the influence, and careless and reckless driving.
—with a file from the Associated Press
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