Or just plain crazy!
Yesterday morning I was having a great morning. My kids were keeping me laughing. I looked down the road at Caleb's bus stop as I was putting trash out for pickup and see Caleb doing what looked like ballet moves over someones sprinkler (that was turned on, of course), over and over. Then there was Andrew singing, which he does all the time, but we never know what to expect HIS words to be. He gets close to correct, but usually whatever he doesn't get correct is pretty hilarious. Yesterday it was "Glory Glory Hallelujah He Reigns" except he was singing Glory glory, hallelujah PEA BRAINS. When I corrected him he looks at me and says "I think I like MY words better!" and runs off singing glory to the peabrains.
I get Bryce on the bus and send Isaac to his bus stop. I noticed a little bit after I put Bryce on the bus his bus, which should have been long gone, circled back around twice. I am thinking this is odd, but what are you going to do. Then I notice it parked at the end of our road. I figure something is wrong with the bus.
I go to the kitchen sink to start breakfast dishes and look out my window to see a police car in my driveway and one in front of the house. I freeze. All kinds of things go through your head when you look out your window and there are police at your house, even when you have done nothing wrong. Or have you? Then I wonder if something happened to my husband, who is out of town. Quickly, many thoughts are swarming in my head and I am glued to the floor.
Luckily, the police talked on their radios and got back in their cars. I step outside to see what is going on. I would not typically go outside if there were police in the neighborhood, however I have one child on a bus that is acting strangely and one child standing at his bus stop. When I stepped outside there were FOUR police cars down by Isaac's bus stop. At Bryce's bus, there is a car in front of the bus and a second bus is next to it. The kids are getting off their bus and on to the other.
At this point, the police have ALL pulled up next door. There is one standing on the side walk and a friend that was driving by told him that I had a child on the bus and one at the bus stop and asked if everything was okay. He assured her it was. This Momma is not convinced, seeming as how there are four police next door, my child was taken off one bus and put on another and the bus driver is now next door talking to the police.
Come to find out, the bus driver, who picks kids up at their house (at their age, they do not have to walk to a bus stop), had missed the neighbors stop. Now, this child is not normally outside waiting when the bus gets here. We can see the entrance of the neighborhood and we can see the bus make the stop before their stop. The bus driver typically stops at their house and waits on him to come out (which he takes his time doing). Bryce got on the bus and the kid was not trying to walk down to our house to get on either.
The dad decided to put his son in the car and CHASE down the bus. When she stops he pulls up, gets out and his son gets on the bus. He goes to the drivers window and starts yelling at her that she can't keep missing the bus. She said that it was the first time she had missed their house and it was a mistake and apologized. Somehow in all of this, he started cussing her out, yelling in front of all of the kids on the bus.
The bus driver called her boss and the police. I found out what happened yesterday morning, apparently there were several witnesses, some that were not even outside, but heard the yelling at 7 in the morning and went to check it out. It happened on the next road over in our neighborhood, but Isaac heard it at his bus stop on our road, and saw him driving crazy.
The third grade point of view was almost exactly the same story I had already heard. The only difference in his version was that "17 police cars came and they pulled into the neighborhood with their sirens on, half turning one way and half turning the other way. Then they all drive fast up to the bus and slam on their brakes." Yeah, he is eight - I kinda expected a story similar to that!
He also said that when he was cussing out the bus driver he was flailing his hands around and that the kids on the bus thought he was going to pull the driver through the window. The kids were genuinely scared. Then the man stomped off to his car and followed the bus for a little bit and then drove off crazy.
He said he was a little worried to get on the bus yesterday afternoon, even though the kid does not ride the bus in the afternoon. I am SO mad that my child was put in that situation. From hearing the words he heard to seeing the man act the way he did. This mans child was on the bus when it happened. This child has to go to school with these kids. I asked Bryce if the child said anything and Bryce said "Yeah, he said he thinks his Dad has gone crazy!"
Bryce is friends with this kid. He occasionally (not very often) goes to this child's house to play. He came home yesterday saying "I think I will not being going to his house for a long time, just in case he is still mad." He also said he would stay away from the little boy. I told him that would be a pretty permanent thing, him not going to their house, but that it was okay for him to still play with the little boy at school and at our house. That little boy did not do ANYTHING wrong! Bryce is scared of this man now, in a big way!
The first thing out of Bryce's mouth when he walked in the door, though, was "Why did the police come to OUR house when we didn't do anything wrong?" I explained to him that they were just at the wrong house. He asked what they said to me and I told him they never even made it to the door. Apparently, the bus driver saw them at our house and told the police it was the wrong house and the police at the bus radioed it to the police at our house. But, the last thing Bryce saw before the craziness of switching buses and trying to get to school (which they were late for) was the police at our house and it apparently bothered him all day.
How dare a parent act like that in front of his own child, much less a bus of kids (luckily the bus was not full, I think there were about 10 kids on it). How dare a parent make my child not only nervous about getting on his school bus, but nervous because he is our neighbor?
I don't know what happened to the parent, whether he was ticketed or what, but I hope their was a consequence to his actions, other than the consequences that he imposed on the kids! I am proud of Bryce for telling me how out of line this man was, how he was talking in "improper tones" and how he was NEVER going to do anything that stupid.
Hoping today is less crazy and involves no police!
