Officials investigate why girl, 7, kicked off bus

A driver is on leave as Alpine School District officials investigate why a 7-year-old Eagle Mountain student was booted from a bus in an unfamiliar area.

District spokeswoman Rhonda Bromley says the second-grader boarded the bus to go to a friend’s house Friday. The driver realized the girl didn’t have permission to be there and confronted her.

The driver tried unsuccessfully to contact the girl’s mother, then told the girl to leave the bus.

Amber Hobdy tells the Deseret News that when she finally got in touch with her daughter, the girl was in tears and didn’t know where she was.

She eventually recognized a familiar church and they met up there.

Bromley tells the Daily Herald the incident was not acceptable, and the driver should have returned the girl to the school.