• 'Greatest birthday' for boy rescued from Alabama bunker by FBI

    Harri Anne Smith, a state senator in Alabama, has been in close contact with five-year-old Ethan's family since he was taken hostage last week. She said there are "lots of smiles" now that he's been freed and former FBI hostage negotiator Clint Van Zandt discusses the details of the case.

    By Isolde Raftery, Staff Writer, NBC News

    An Alabama boy is set for the "greatest" birthday of his life after being freed from a week's captivity in an underground bunker, a pastor said Tuesday.

    The boy, snatched from a school bus in a fatal shooting, was rescued after a daring raid by FBI agents that left his kidnapper, Jimmy Lee Dykes, dead.

    The 5-year-old, who is recovering in hospital, turns 6 on Wednesday. 

    “I would image it’s going to be the greatest birthday that family and that little boy has ever experienced and probably will ever experience,” local pastor Michael Senn told TODAY.

    The boy was reunited with his mother and is "laughing, joking, playing, eating," said Special Agent in Charge Stephen Richardson at a press briefing Monday.

    "He's very brave, he's very lucky. His success story is that he got out and he's doing great."

    Richardson said the operation began when Dykes was seen holding a gun. "At this point, FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child.” 

    The Dothan Eagle newspaper reported that two loud blasts came from the scene shortly before 3:30 p.m. According to the report, an ambulance then drove up the private dirt road where Dykes’ homes is located and then left a short time later.

    The blast apparently came from a "diversionary device," an FBI source confirmed to NBC News. FBI officers had lowered a camera into the bunker -- they would not reveal how, saying they may want to use the method in the future -- which allowed them to determine when to throw in the flash-bang to distract Dykes.That's when they entered through a door at the top of the bunker. 

    At the Monday night press briefing, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said that Dykes, 65, was harmed when officers entered the bunker but he would not say how the captor died. A law enforcement official told NBC News they are waiting for the medical examiner's report to determine how he died.

    Related: Official says boy is his 'lovely' self after rescue

    The ordeal began at 3:30 p.m. CT last Tuesday when Dykes -- described by his neighbors as a paranoid survivalist -- grabbed the boy from a school bus in Midland City, Ala.

    Dykes boarded the bus and demanded that the bus driver, Charles Poland, 66, turn over two young children. When Poland refused, Dykes fatally shot him and took the boy.

    Dykes, a decorated Vietnam veteran, took Ethan to an underground bunker that neighbors had seen him digging. The bunker is believed to be roughly 8 feet by 6 feet and to be stocked with supplies. The bunker has a ventilation pipe that authorities used to deliver items. Authorities have not said how long they believe Dykes could have lasted underground, or discussed a motive for the kidnapping.

    After a six-day standoff, a federal hostage team stormed an underground bunker in Alabama, where Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, was holding five-year-old Ethan hostage. Ethan was freed safely, while Dykes was found dead. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports, and Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson and former FBI hostage negotiator Clint van Zandt discuss the case.

    Over the last week, hostage negotiators delivered a red Hot Wheels car, Cheez-Its crackers and other food and medicine to the boy, who has a mild form of autism. The FBI said Sunday that the boy’s captor “continues to make the environment as comfortable as possible for the child.”

    The boy has Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a state representative said last week.

    Law enforcement officials remained largely mum about the details of the case, possibly because it was believed that Dykes kept a television set in the bunker. Early on in the negotiations, they moved reporters farther from the scene. Throughout the week, they canceled press conferences, saying that nothing had changed.

    Many of the law enforcement press conferences appeared to have been directed more at Dykes than at reporters. Sheriff Olson went so far as to thank Dykes “for taking care of our child.”

    “That’s very important,” Olson said.

    Before the standoff ended on Monday, Olson told reporters that Dykes "feels like he has a story that’s important to him. ... Although it’s very complex, we’re trying to make a safe environment.”

    At the Monday night press briefing, Olson would not say what that story was, repeating that the investigation was ongoing and that the crime scene still needed to be processed. But he was passionate -- and willing to discuss -- Ethan.

    "This boy is a very special child. He's been through and endured a lot and by the grace of God, he's OK," Olson said. "That was the mission of every man and woman on this compound. Of every law enforcement officer, every first responder, and all of the community who prayed to bring him home safely." 

    Former FBI hostage negotiator Clint Van Zandt said on the TODAY show that patience is key in hostage situations.

    “Eighty-five percent or more of standoff situations like this end nonviolently,” Van Zandt said on Saturday. “Law enforcement doesn’t want to do anything precipitously that could cause anybody to be hurt at this time when the talking cure will likely work in this situation.”

    Following the end of the hostage situation, Alabama Gov. Robert J. Bentley released a statement, hailing the efforts to save the boy but mourning the death of the bus driver:

    "I am thankful that the child who was abducted is now safe. I am so happy this little boy can now be reunited with his family and friends. We will all continue to pray for the little boy and his family as they recover from the trauma of the last several days."

    President Barack Obama also weighed in, calling FBI Director Robert Mueller to compliment his officers. 

    NBC's Gabe Gutierrez, Erin McClam, Matthew DeLuca, Jeff Black and Pete Williams contributed reporting. 

    Related:

    Son says bus driver in Alabama hostage crisis gave life for 'his children'

    Sheriff to Alabama hostage-taker: 'I want to thank him for taking care of our child'

  • Alabama child hostage given meds, crayons as standoff stretches into 4th day

    The family of the Alabama bus driver killed for refusing to hand children over to a gunman is speaking out for the first time. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

    By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

    An Alabama boy spent his fourth day of captivity in an underground bunker Friday with a survivalist who allegedly killed a school bus driver, but the 5-year-old has received medicine he needs, plus crayons and coloring books.

    Hostage negotiators have been talking to the boy's captor through a lengthy PVC pipe, but there was no sign of progress. Police told Alabama media Thursday that the man has been known to stay in the bunker as long as eight days.

    The boy, a 5-year-old named Ethan known to his mother as "Love Bug," was apparently unharmed, authorities said Thursday.

    His family, which has not spoken publicly since the abduction, was "holding on by a thread," a state representative told the TODAY show. "We are all just hoping this can come to a safe end," Rep. Steve Clouse said.

    Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, a Vietnam veteran described by authorities as a loner with anti-government leanings -- and by neighbors as a paranoid menace -- is suspected of taking the boy after storming a school bus Tuesday afternoon. Bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was shot and killed while trying to stop the abduction.

    Strangely, the two men had a brief encounter just a day before the siege, a neighbor said.

    Kelly Miller, who lives next door to Dykes, told NBC affiliate WSFA that Dykes boarded Poland’s bus Monday and spoke with him. She did not know what was said.

    Then on Tuesday morning, before the abduction, Poland gave Dykes a gift of eggs and marmalade to thank him for clearing off the driveway where the bus had to turn around, according to Miller.

    Miller, whose sons Jessie and Jackson were able to leave the bus before the shooting, told the station that Dykes called her father to the property fence shortly afterward and gave him Poland’s gifts, saying: "Here. I don't want this."

    Hours later, Miller heard shots and screams.

    "Within seconds of me grasping what was going on, I knew it was Jim," she told WSFA.

    A source close to the investigation said the bunker, which is on Dykes' property and was described by a neighbor as 4 feet long, 6 feet wide and 8 feet deep, was equipped with power, food, television and plenty of supplies. The source said negotiators had gotten medicine, crayons and coloring books to the boy.

    Late Thursday, Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said negotiations through the pipe were continuing.

    Clouse told reporters that the boy suffered from Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but had been able to get his medicine while held captive.


    People in the small Alabama town of Midland City, not far from the Florida line, expressed hope that prayer might help. For the negotiators it is a matter of waiting, said Clint Van Zandt, a former chief hostage negotiator for the FBI.

    "He doesn't want to hurt the child. He didn't take the child to hurt him," said Van Zandt, an analyst for MSNBC. "The child is simply the means to keep law enforcement from crashing into his bunker right now."

    He added: "Time is on the side of the negotiator."

    It could still be a long wait. James Arrington, police chief of the nearby town of Pinckard, told The Birmingham News that Dykes has been known to stay in his bunker as long as eight days.

    The source told NBC News that the man believed to be Dykes walked onto the bus on Tuesday with a note, demanding that two children be handed over to him. The bus driver refused and was shot and killed.

    Clouse said the kidnapping appeared to be random.

    Neighbors in Midland City have said they saw Dykes tirelessly digging and working on the bunker. One man said it was protected by several feet of sand on top.

    Poland has been hailed as a hero. The county school system said 21 children made it off the bus alive.

    The driver's son, Aaron Poland, told NBC News that his father took bullets for the children on his bus as he would have for his own children.

    "Every time a child got on my dad's bus, they were no longer their parents', they were his," he said.

    Poland's sister, Vicki Upchurch, told NBC station KHQ in Spokane, Wash., that the driver "would have done anything to protect those kids."

    Poland and his family grew up in northern Idaho, where much of the family still lives, Upchurch said. 

    Relatives were planning to travel from Idaho to Alabama for Poland's funeral services this weekend. 

    "We will get through this," Upchurch said. "My brother was very religious. He had a deep faith."

    M. Alex Johnson, Ian Johnston, Matthew DeLuca, Gabe Gutierrez, Isolde Raftery and Alastair Jamieson of NBC News contributed to this report.

    RELATED: Son says bus driver in Alabama hostage crisis gave life for 'his children'

  • Alabama bunker hostage boy's family is 'holding on by a thread'

    An Alabama state senator and a representative who have been in touch with the family of the 5-year-old boy being held hostage in a bunker discuss the case.

    By Erin McClam and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News

    The family of an Alabama boy abducted from his school bus and being held in an underground bunker is "holding on by a thread," a state representative said Thursday as the hostage drama stretched into a third day.

    The boy, a 5-year-old named Ethan, is receiving necessary medication and appears to be calm and doing well, a state senator said.

    A source close to the investigation told NBC News on Thursday that authorities had also managed to get crayons and coloring books to the boy.


    The child was kidnapped Tuesday after school when a man stormed the bus and presented a note demanding that two children be handed over to him, the source said. When the driver refused, the man shot and killed him and grabbed the boy, authorities said. Twenty-one other children on the bus were able to escape.

    On Wednesday, a source close to the investigation identified the suspected gunman to NBC News as Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, of Midland City, describing him as a loner and a survivalist who "does not trust the government" and holds "anti-American views."

    Hostage negotiators were still talking to the man in his bunker through a PVC pipe, but after a second night ended with no sign of progress in negotiations, Alabama state Rep. Steve Clouse told the TODAY show: "We are all just hoping this can come to a safe end."

    He said the boy's family was "holding on by a thread."

    The Dothan Eagle quoted a neighbor, Michael Creel, as describing the bunker as a "homemade bomb shelter," roughly 4 feet wide, 6 feet long and 8 feet deep and covered by several feet of sand. James Arrington, police chief in neighboring  Pinckard, where the bus was assaulted, told reporters Thursday that Dykes had been known to stay in it for as long as eight days.

    Alabama state Sen. Harri Anne Smith told TODAY that negotiators had delivered medication that the boy needed, provided by his mother, and that he was believed to be calm and doing well. His mother has "taken comfort in that," she said.

    In the remote town of Midland City, just north of the Alabama-Florida state line, people prayed for the boy's safe release.

    "Right now, the whole town seems like they're just in a mourning stage," convenience store manager Carl McKenzie told NBC station WSFA of Montgomery. "I would go take that child's place if I could, just to get him out of danger."

    Bus driver praised
    Authorities offered no hints to the gunman's motive. Clouse said the kidnapping appeared random.

    Hostage negotiators have been talking to Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, who is alleged to have abducted a kindergartner from his school bus Tuesday. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

    Read more: Hostage suspect was loner, missed court appearance

    The gunman burst onto the yellow school bus about 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. When the driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, tried to stop him from taking children off the bus, he was shot and killed. The source close to the investigation told NBC News that four spent bullets were found at the scene.

    Read more: Slain bus driver remembered as hero

    The county school system said 21 students had made it off the bus safely and praised Poland as a fallen hero. But the gunman made off with the one child, possibly because the boy fainted during the siege, according to WSFA.

    Clouse said gratitude was being expressed for Poland's actions, telling TODAY: "He started the day as a bus driver and ended it a hero."

    Linda Williams, a county tax clerk whose cousin was married to Poland, described him to NBC News as "a good Christian man" who was active in church.

    "It says in the Bible the meek will inherit the Earth," brother-in-law Melvin Skipper told the Eagle. "He was the meekest man I knew."

    Poland's neighbor Hilburn Benton told the newspaper that Poland refused to accept payment for work on his yard two years ago. "He told me, "You're my friend and you're my neighbor. I'm not charging you a dime,'" Benton recalled.

    Suspect faced previous charges
    Dykes had been due in court Wednesday morning to face a misdemeanor charge of menacing James E. Davis Jr., a neighbor who accused him of firing a pistol at his truck Dec. 10. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that the dispute was over a makeshift speed bump.

    Dale County Board of Education

    Charles Albert Poland Jr., who had driven a school bus for Dale County, Ala., since 2009, was shot and killed.

    Rhonda Wilbur told WSFA that Dykes was a longtime source of concern in the neighborhood because "he has been like a time bomb waiting for him to go off." Wilbur told reporters that Dykes had beaten her dog to death with a lead pipe.

    In addition to the county sheriff's department, the FBI and a SWAT team were on the scene. A woman answering the phone at the Midland City Police Department said the FBI had taken over and that local police were no longer involved. Authorities ordered people living nearby to leave during the standoff.

    Schools in Dale County and the nearby city of Ozark were closed for the rest of the week. Dale County schools said counselors would be available to help students, including those who were on the bus.

    M. Alex Johnson, Gabe Gutierrez, Isolde Raftery and Alastair Jamieson of NBC News contributed to this report.

    The Dothan Eagle via AP

    A man boarded this stopped school bus in the town of Midland City, Ala., on Tuesday afternoon and shot the driver when he refused to let a child off the bus. The bus driver died.

  • New York City school bus drivers to strike; 152,000 students affected

    View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

    By Melissa Russo and Andrew Siff, NBCNewYork.com

    The New York City school bus drivers union will go on strike beginning Wednesday morning, union president Michael Cordiello announced Monday evening.

    Cordiello, who heads Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, said the union is still negotiating with city officials and is "optimistic" for an agreement but until there is a resolution, drivers will strike Wednesday. More than 8,000 drivers and matrons will be taking part.

    "With its regrettable decision to strike, the union is abandoning 152,000 students and their families who rely on school bus service each day," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. "As Chancellor (Dennis) Walcott and I have said, the City will take all steps available to ensure that those who are impacted have the support they need, and we are now activating the protocols we put in place in the event of a strike."

    Cordiello said, "Safely transporting our children back and forth [to] school ... has, and always will be, the top priority of every man and woman who make up ATU Local 1181."

    Read more news on NBCNewYork.com

    Under the city's strike contingency plans, students would receive free MetroCards for mass transit. Parents or guardians of younger children also would get the cards.

    Families of special needs students would be reimbursed for private transportation. Of the 152,000 students who use the buses, 54,000 are disabled and would face extra hardships in trying to find alternative transportation.

    There are 1.1 million students in the New York City schools. While the majority don't use school buses, those that do are among the youngest ones.

    Bloomberg: 'Irresponsible,' 'misguided'
    The union and the city have been battling over how new contracts are being drawn up for a set of bus routes. The city wants to cut transportation costs and has put about 1,100 bus contracts with private bus companies up for bid.

    The union is decrying the lack of Employee Protection Provisions, saying without the so-called EPP, current drivers could suddenly lose their jobs once their contracts are up in June.

    Bloomberg reiterated at a press conference earlier Monday that the union wants job protections the city cannot legally provide. Cordiello said that claim was inaccurate.

    "We know it is not illegal to put it in the bid," he said at a press conference Monday. "We will continue to push for resolution, but we cannot negotiate from a position of inaccurate information."

    The state Court of Appeals in 2011 barred the city from including EPP because of competitive bidding laws. Hence, the mayor said, the city cannot accept the union demand for an EPP clause.


    "Let me be clear: the union's decision to strike has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with job protections that the City legally cannot include in its bus contracts," Bloomberg's statement said. "We hope that the union will reconsider its irresponsible and misguided decision to jeopardize our students' education."

    During the strike, more transit officers and crossing guards would be in place to help children get to school using mass transportation, Schools Chancellor Walcott said.

    The city also said reimbursements and MetroCards will be offered to parents who would need transportation alternatives.

    Parents Monday were worried even before the strike was announced, though many hadn't had time to make logistical arrangements.

    "It would be very difficult for me to walk her to school because of my health condition. That would be a very difficult problem," said Norma Melgar. "I hope they don't strike. I haven't made any plans at all yet."

    Student Genesis Bustamante said she would have to adapt to an unfamiliar way of getting to school.

    "If I don't take the yellow bus, I'm not really sure how to get to school that easily," she said.

  • NBC 4 New York

    School bus crashes into house after driver's 'medical emergency'

    Update, Oct. 5, 2012: A school bus driver, who authorities said passed out behind the wheel and crashed into a house on Long Island, N.Y. while children were aboard, has been arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, according to police.

    Original story: A school bus leaving a Catholic elementary school crashed into a house on Long Island Wednesday afternoon, NBCNewYork.com reports.

    Syosset Fire Chief Peter Silver said the driver "had a medical emergency of some kind." Newsday reported that he was airlifted to a hospital in East Meadow, where he was admitted in a serious but stable condition.

    The five children on the bus ranged in age from 5 to 8, but none was injured, police said. Read the full story at NBCNewYork.com.

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  • School bus kills 7-year-old girl in Arkansas

    By NBC News staff

    Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET: An elementary student was killed when a school bus hit her in a rural area west of Hot Springs, Ark., on Friday morning, officials said.


    The Lake Hamilton School District, based in Pearcy, Ark., confirmed the incident on its website's home page, with a statement: "The Lake Hamilton School community is deeply saddened this morning by the tragic fatality of one of our students involved in a school bus accident. We grieve with the student’s family at this extremely difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with them."

    The accident happened near 3300 Old Dallas Road in Garland County at approximately 6:28 a.m. CT, according to Little Rock's NBC-affiliate KARK 4. The 7-year-old girl was a second-grade student at Lake Hamilton Elementary School, school district Superintendent Steve Anderson confirmed in a news conference Friday afternoon.

    "Words can't express the extent of the sorrow felt by this community," he said, according to KARK 4.

    Four other students were on the bus at the time, Anderson said, and counselors were available on campus.

    The accident occurred in a rural area with little traffic near the girl's normal bus stop, according to Anderson. Garland County Sheriff's Department Deputy A.J. Tart said at the news conference that at the time of the accident the headlights from the bus were likely the only light on the road.

    The driver's identity has not been released, but Anderson said the driver is "distraught" and knew the girl and her family personally. The driver has been employed with the school district for five years.

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  • 4 dead, including 2 students, after Nebraska bus collides with tractor-trailer

    Four people were killed in a collision between a school bus carrying young children and a tractor-trailer in Nebraska on Wednesday. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A fiery bus crash in southern Nebraska on Wednesday evening has killed four people, including two students.


    The accident happened when a tractor-trailer hauling hay bales collided with a school bus south of Blue Hill, Neb., around 4:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the Webster County Sheriff's Department told NBC News. The vehicles burst into flames after the collision, officials said, killing both drivers and two students and injuring five other children.

    The injured, all of whom were between the ages of 6 and 10, were taken to area hospitals; one, a seven-year-old girl, was flown by medical helicopter to Children's Hospital in Omaha, Sara Bockstadter, Webster County attorney, said Thursday. The girl was listed in serious condition on Thursday morning, reported NBC station WOWT.com.

    The victims of the crash were identified Thursday as Travis Witte, 21, of Blue Hill, the driver of the truck; Marla Wentworth, 59, of Red Cloud, the driver of the school bus; and students Dustin Tesdahl, 18, and Caroline Thallman, 10, both of Blue Hill.

    The Blue Hill Community School District serves kids from kindergarten through 12th grade. The district has set up a crisis center at the school to help students and their families, Bockstadter said.

    “Our first concern is for the families of those affected by Wednesday’s events," Bockstadter said. “Our hearts go out to everyone who has been touched by this tragedy."

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  • Bullied bus monitor case: 4 students get one-year suspensions

    AP

    In this image taken from AP video, bus monitor Karen Klein speaks during an interview June 21.

    By NBC News and msnbc.com staff

    One-year school suspensions were handed down Friday to four seventh-graders who were accused of bullying a bus monitor in Greece, N.Y.,  in a case that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the 68-year-old woman.


    The Greece Central School District said the four boys and their parents agreed to the punishment, NBC station WHEC of Rochester reported.

    The bullying was captured on video, posted on the Internet and triggered widespread outrage, but was followed by an effort to raise a little money to send Karen Klein on a nice vacation. That might turn out to be a real nice vacation: By Friday afternoon, the “Lets Give Karen – The bus monitor – H Klein A Vacation!” campaign on Indiegogo.com, a site devoted to raising money for various causes, had raised $667,000.

    "This is definitely the highest-grossing and fastest-grossing campaign we've ever seen," Indiegogo.com spokesperson Rose Levy told msnbc.com last week.

    WHEC reported that during the one-year suspension, each student will attend an alternative program at the district’s reengagement center. They will also be required to complete 50 hours of community service with senior citizens and will also have to complete a formal program in bullying prevention, respect and responsibility. 

    Donations for bullied bus monitor soar 

    The YouTube video that started it all emerged in the middle of last week. It goes on for 10 minutes and shows the four boys repeatedly harassing Klein on the last day of school. 

    The online campaign raising money to send a bullied New York school bus monitor on vacation has surpassed its goal – by more than half a million dollars. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

    All four students have since sent written apologies to Klein through the Greece Police Department. Klein has also met with some of their parents, but not the boys themselves.

    This article includes reporting from NBC station WHEC of Rochester, N.Y., and msnbc.com staff.

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  • Vacation of a lifetime pledged for bus monitor bullied in viral video

    Three separate videos totaling 14 minutes taken during a school bus ride just outside Rochester, N.Y., show middle schoolers taunting a bus monitor until she cries, prompting questions about kids and civility. NBC's Craig Melvin reports, and bus monitor Karen Klein talks with TODAY's Matt Lauer about the cruel harassment.

    By msnbc.com staff

    Updated 10:30 a.m. Thursday ET: Karen Klein, a school bus monitor of Greece, N.Y., depicted being verbally bullied in a video gone viral, may have the last laugh.


    By mid-morning Thursday on the fund-raising site indiegogo.com, nearly 8,000 donors had pledged more than $150,000 in a campaign called “Lets Give Karen – The bus monitor – H Klein A Vacation.”

    The fund-raising was set up through a reddit.com member, identified as Max Sidorov of Toronto, Canada.

    An Indiegogo spokesperson told msnbc.com that the website was in touch with Klein, who will receive all the money raised through its site when the campaign is over, scheduled July 20.

    Karen Klein talks to Matt Lauer on TODAY

    A video called "Making the Bus Monitor Cry" was posted to YouTube on Monday and had been seen by more than 100,000 viewers by Wednesday evening. The video shows students yelling at Klein and making fun of her weight and other physical conditions.

    Graphic content warning: The video on YouTube 

    NBC television station WHEC of Rochester, N.Y., on Wednesday confirmed with the Greece School District that Klein was the subject of the middle school students’ heckling.

    An outpouring of support for Klein emerged after her identity became known.

    While WHEC was interviewing Klein, the station reported, people were stopping over and flowers were being delivered.

    Klein said she still can’t believe this happened. The video was taken by a student who is always very kind to her, she said.

    “It’s just plain mean, and no one should have to live with that,” she said.

    In her 20-plus years as a bus driver and monitor with the Greece Central Schools, Klein said she has never run into this kind of behavior.

    See the original story at WHEC.com

    “Everything started out as usual. I don’t know what happened,” she said.

    Klein said the four kids in the video often misbehave, but what happened Monday was taking things to a whole new level.

    Greece police and school district officials are investigating three videos, including the one titled "Making the Bus Monitor Cry." 

    NBC affiliate WHEC talks to bus monitor Karen Klein, who was verbally abused by a group of middle school students on a school bus.

    Debra Hoeft, Greece School District, said, “We do not tolerate harassment of staff or students. While we can not comment on specific student discipline, we can say that students found to be involved will face strong disciplinary actions.”

    In one of the videos, the kids are calling her names, swearing at her and even making physical threats. Klein doesn’t say much to the middle schoolers.

    “I was trying to just ignore,” Klein said. “I’m hoping they would go away, but it doesn’t work.”

    Klein said she didn’t know about the video until Wednesday morning, and watched it for the first time at the police station when she went to help them with their investigation.

    Klein told WHEC she plans to return to work but not on a bus carrying those students.

    Msnbc.com's Jim Gold contributed to this article. Follow him on Facebook here.

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  • 6 Georgia school buses crash; dozens hurt

    By msnbc.com staff

    COVINGTON, Ga. -- A chain reaction crash Saturday involved six school buses full of children heading for a Six Flags amusement park outside Atlanta, officials said.


    The 11 a.m. crash on Interstate 20 trapped the driver of one bus from Burke County Middle School in Waynesboro. After emergency crews cut her from the wreckage, Angela Anthony, 44, from Midville, Ga., was airlfited to an Atlanta-area hospital, Lt. Tyrone Oliver, Newton County Sheriff spokesman, told NBC station WXIA of Atlanta.

    Sixty-one students were treated at Newton County Medical Center for minor injuries, WXIA said.  All were expected to be sent home by the end of the day.

    “At mile marker 98, just west of the Georgia Highway 11 exit, traffic began slowing for a lane closure about a half mile ahead,” Georgia State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “As the buses slowed, one bus struck the rear of another, setting off a chain-reaction crash. The passenger car was the last vehicle in the line and struck the rear of the sixth bus.”

    A Burke County school official told The Associated Press that the children suffered nothing more than a few bruises and scrapes.

    At one point, all westbound lanes and one eastbound lane were closed. They have since reopened.

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  • School bus driver who passed out behind wheel dies; 13-year-old boy had to take over

    By msnbc.com staff

    The Washington state school bus driver who passed out, prompting a 13-year-old student to get behind the wheel, has died, NBC affiliate KING5 reported Thursday, citing his family.


    Ryan Callis died Wednesday but no cause of death was provided, KING5 stated.

    Callis was on his morning route to Surprise Lake Middle School in Milton, Wash., on Monday when he passed out.

    Student Jeremy Wuitschick took over driving to keep the vehicle from hitting a church, while student Johnny Wood performed CPR on Callis.

    Both students spoke with NBC's TODAY show on Thursday about how they sprang into action. They were interviewed before Callis' famiy had confirmed his death, KING5 reported.

    No one aboard the bus was hurt.

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  • Bus driver, student killed in school bus crash

    Bill McCleery/The Indianapolis Star

    A bus driver and a student were killed on March 12 in a school bus accident on the Southeast side of Indianapolis.The accident occurred in the 900 block of South Emerson Avenue near English Avenue.

    By msnbc.com news services

    Updated at 3:35 p.m. ET: A bus driver and a 5-year-old student were killed Monday morning when a school bus crashed into a bridge outside of Indianapolis, NBC affiliate WTHR reports.


    Ten other students were injured after the bus struck a bridge support beam on the city's east side, officials said. Two of the injured students are listed in critical condition.

    Police spokesman Sgt. Anthony Schneider says the bus carrying students to Lighthouse Charter School struck a bridge abutment about 7:45 am Monday in the 900 block of Emerson Avenue, near Southeastern Avenue.

    The victims were identified as Thomas Spencer II, 60, and Donasty Smith, 5.

    Aerial images from WTHR show the front of the school bus mashed into one of the support pillars for a train bridge.

    Indianapolis Fire Department Capt. Rita Burris said the two critically injured students and eight others whom she characterized as "walking wounded" were taken to Indianapolis hospitals. WISH-TV reported that one of the injured was a child whom emergency crews had to rescue from under the front wheel of the bus.

    Burris said fire department crews spent about 45 minutes extricating four people from the bus.

    The driver of the bus died at the scene, and there is no word yet on what led to the crash. The bus was transporting children to Lighthouse Charter School on Sloan Avenue, just north of Beech Grove.

    WISH-TV reports that as many as 50 children ranging from ages 5 to 16 may have been on the bus. The uninjured students were taken to the school about two miles away.

    Burris said witnesses saw nothing unusual before the driver's side of the bus struck the concrete pillar of the old railroad bridge. The pavement was wet Monday, but she did not know whether it had been raining at the time of the crash.

    A school bus in Indiana crashed at the base of a bridge killing the driver and a student. MSNBC's Chris Jansing reports.

    Mitch Gibbony, who works for Beelman Trucking Co. adjacent to the scene of the crash, told IndyStar.com he was on his way to work when he saw “lots of smoke.” 

    “By the time I got there, the bus was already wrecked. I stopped and helped the kids get outside," Gibbony told the newspaper. "There were a lot of kids on that bus.”

    One witness told WISH-TV she was on her way to work, headed northbound on Emerson Avenue, when she saw the crash.

    "I couldn't figure out what it was that was under the bridge," Tami Presley told the TV channel. "As I was pulling under I just see kids just start jumping off. They were all screaming and crying."

    Presley told WISH-TV she heard screaming and crying and saw many kids with bloody noses.

    "I just tried to mostly console the children," Presley said.

    Lighthouse student Dimitri Smith, 15, missed the bus and was riding to school with his grandfather when he saw the accident scene.

    Smith told The Indianapolis Star the bus driver was "a really cool guy."   

    "He wanted all of us to be safe, and he was a good bus driver," he said.

    Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard was on the scene, comforting firefighters and other rescue personnel working the scene, according to The Indianapolis Star. 

    "Hearing about the situation this morning and how tragic it was ,I just wanted to come out here to maybe help prop a few people up, and I'll be going out to the school this morning to do the same thing," Ballard said. "I just wanted to come out here."

    About 600 students attend the kindergarten through 10th grade school. Miller Transportation has a contract with the school to operate the bus, and there haven’t been any prior accidents with them, said Cheryl Bates, director of operations for the Massachusetts-based Lighthouse Academies, a national nonprofit network of charter schools in seven states.

    “Students that are not injured are on their way to school right now,” she told msnbc.com. “We’ve got counselor service there for students and staff to process what has happened… We’re just all pretty saddened and shocked by this horrible incident.”

    The school planned to dismiss students early Monday.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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