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Holly Springs police are investigating an incident in which Wake County parents responded to a school bus driver missing some bus stops by allegedly blocking the bus with a car, prompting some of the children to open an emergency exit and jump out.
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A police report shows Holly Springs police officers responded shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday to a “disturbance involving a bus driver and parents” at Scotstowne Lane and Grenoch Valley Lane in Holly Springs. No charges have been filed yet, but police describe a chaotic confrontation between the bus driver who was taking the elementary school students home and some of their parents.
“Holly Springs police are currently investigating an incident where a WCPSS bus driver apparently missed some bus stops which allegedly angered parents,” according to a statement Thursday from Holly Springs police. “One parent reportedly blocked the bus with their car and other parents attempted to get their children off the bus at an undesignated stop.
“This led to some children using an emergency exit to leave the bus. Holly Springs police are coordinating with WCPSS as the incident is still under investigation.”
The bus was driven by a substitute driver “who experienced difficulty navigating the route,” Sarah Stephens, the principal of Middle Creek Elementary School in Apex, said in a message sent to families Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday was just the fourth day of classes in the new school year for the year-round school.
“The driver safely pulled the bus over to the side of the road while working to confirm the route before continuing,” Stephens said in the message. “While the bus was stopped, some parents of students on board who were tracking the route via the Here Comes the Bus app noticed it was stopped on the side of the road and came to the location to pick up their children.”
Stephens didn’t mention the alleged incident of parents trying to block the bus or children leaving through the emergency exit in her message. Instead, Stephens said Holly Springs police responded “to assist and help ensure the safety of our students and families.”
“We understand this situation may have been concerning for students and families, and we sincerely apologize for the delay and uncertainty this afternoon,” Stephens said. “We are reviewing what occurred to determine what next steps are needed.”
The Wake County school system said Thursday that the driver’s employment status remains unchanged.
Stephens and Middle Creek Elementary were already in the national spotlight since conservative groups criticized the school’s hiring of a transgender teacher.
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Deborah Bridger, a parent of one of the elementary school students on the bus, described Tuesday’s bus incident in a Facebook post that has gone viral.
Bridger could hear her daughter crying in the background as the mother of another student urged her to come to the scene. Bridger arrived to find a group of still crying children and the bus blocked by a car in a roundabout.
“I think the main takeaway would be it’s never safe to chase the bus,” Bridger said in an interview Thursday with The News & Observer. “I don’t care if the bus driver is in the wrong, like it’s just not safe.
“It’s definitely not safe to block one in, and it’s extremely dangerous to open the emergency exit when there’s not a real emergency going on. “
Bridger says all the adults — from the driver to the parents — could have handled the situation better.
“It ended up with a bunch of really traumatized kids,” Bridger said. “Some of them are pretty scared to get back on the bus, and that’s not the driver’s fault. There’s culpability, I think, all the way around.”
Bridger said her daughter described a scene of hysteria on the bus with students crying, screaming for help and banging on the windows as parents chased after the bus. She said they need to learn from this incident so it doesn’t happen again.
“We need to remind them that the best thing to do is to listen to the driver,” Bridger said. “The safest place is to be on that bus unless there was an accident of some sort. Not letting them off wasn’t him kidnapping them, It was him following the rules he has.”
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Staff writer Lexi Solomon contributed.
This story was originally published August 6, 2026 at 12:12 PM.