School Bus Driver Arrested, Charged With DWI

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – “I ran full speed down to the bus to stop her,” says mom Riley Lee. She says her kids got off the bus Thursday afternoon, came home, and had just told her something was wrong with their bus driver. “My kids kind of ran in the house, frantic, screaming, crying. One with a bloody nose.” Lee caught up to the bus, and climbed on board. “I jump on the bus and tell her (the driver) she needs to turn the bus off and get off the bus now,” she says. “Another mom was right there, and I told them, ‘block the bus. Do not let this lady leave. She cannot go,'” says Lee.

Lee says she tried to settle the 20 or so kids still on the school bus, assuring them that they were now safe. Lee says the kids said the driver was drunk, and explained to her what happened. “She kept hitting brakes. She was running stop signs. Kids were getting dropped off where they weren’t supposed to be getting dropped off at,” Lee says the kids told her.

CMS Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill addressed what happened during a news conference Friday. She says, “We cannot go into specifics because of restrictions around personnel matters, we do and will hold staff to high standards.”

The driver, 70-year-old Sylvia Dollard, was arrested and charged with driving while impaired. She’s been suspended from bus driving duties.

Lee took her kids to the hospital to be checked out just in case. They’ll be OK. She has this message for the bus driver: “For you to to put your life in harm’s way is one thing. But to do that, and put all these other people, kids and just other people on the road in danger, is wrong.”

Lee says she is not worried about putting her kids back on the bus on Tuesday, saying what are the odds of it happening twice.