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Bus Driver Flips Students Off, Abandons Them at Gas Station

Teenage kids from a high school in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, were left stranded in a strange incident earlier this month, when their bus driver got out of the vehicle and walked away – but not before flipping them off.
Teen recalls strange moment when the school bus driver walked away from a bus packed with kids 5 photos
Photo: YouTube / WFMZ
School bus has a cocktail of snow and gravitySchool bus has a cocktail of snow and gravitySchool bus has a cocktail of snow and gravitySchool bus has a cocktail of snow and gravity
This might sound like extremely unprofessional behavior on part of the driver, and it was. One student tells WFMZ that the driver, identified as 44-year-old Lori Ann Mankos, was acting strangely since the start of the ride. She was “nervous” and was driving strangely, so students started cracking jokes about it.

Soon, the jokes were no longer funny. Teens on the bus noticed that the driving was getting more reckless. Footage shot on the bus by the students shows them asking her to pull over or begging her to slow down.

When she made a right-hand turn at great speed and nearly ran into oncoming traffic, the students started to panic. The driver’s response, according to the student, was to flip the bird.

“She told us ‘Go f*** yourselves’. And then flipped us off, you know, stuck her hand in the air and flipped us off,” the teenager says for the media outlet.

After a few more moments, Mankos asked the students if they wanted her to stop at a gas station to call their parents, so they could come pick them up. When they said yes, she did just that: she pulled over at the gas station but instead of calling the parents, she walked inside and handed the keys over to a member of the staff and then casually walked away. She didn’t even bother to open the front door, so the students could get out, so they had to use the emergency exit in the back.

Police later arrested Mankos at her home. They charged her with DUI and 26 separate counts of child endangerment. Her mother tells the media that, while Mankos’ behavior is inexcusable, she reckons she had a nervous breakdown. Mankos was new at her job, apparently.

“First day [as a driver], a kid walked past her and said, ‘I hope she crashes the bus into a tree and dies.’ I don't agree with what she did but I understand it cause she had a nervous breakdown,”
the driver’s mother says.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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