Elementary students were forced to sit on a parked school bus for more than an hour Monday after an angry driver refused to let them leave, says a group of north Spokane parents.

Crying children panicked and tried to climb out bus windows shortly before police arrived, the parents say. One boy jumped from an emergency exit.

Joe Madsen, Spokane School District 81’s security chief, says he is investigating the incident, which happened shortly after the bus had left Logan Elementary School.

A manager who answered the telephone at Laidlaw Transit on Tuesday afternoon said no one was available for comment.

“The entire bus full of kids were all crying,” said Patty Freeland, who tracked down the parked bus to find her children, 8 and 11. “Kids I didn’t even know were asking us to take them off the bus.”

Madsen said problems started when the students became unruly. The driver, apparently following proper procedures, pulled over a couple of blocks from the school and called for help, Madsen said.

Meanwhile, parents worried because their children weren’t home on time. Several parents called a school secretary who told them the bus was delayed.

Cheryl Bentley, who found the parked bus by driving along the bus route, said the driver and another Laidlaw employee refused to let her inside.

“My kid’s screaming, ‘Mommy, Mommy! Help me!”’ said Bentley, who knocked on doors of nearby houses until a resident let her use the phone to call police.

Bentley’s daughter, 10-year-old Helana, said the bus driver had become angry because some students were swearing and others were singing “It’s a Grand Old Flag.”

“He stopped the bus and wouldn’t let us off the bus,” said Helana, adding that the bus driver raised his hand as if to strike her. “We were all so scared, we started trying to crawl out the windows.”

Bentley said she finally barged onto the bus and grabbed her daughter. Freeland’s 11-year-old son, Cory, opened the emergency exit at the back of the bus and jumped.

Madsen said another school bus arrived to take some of the children home, while the first bus finished part of the route. Several parents picked up their children at Illinois and Morton, where the bus initially had stopped.

Madsen said safety procedures prevented parents from taking their children from the bus right away. “Once they’re in our care, we’re responsible for dropping them off at the (bus) stop,” he said.

Drivers also are instructed to stop buses until problems are under control, Madsen said.

“To my knowledge, they implemented all the appropriate procedures.”

He refused to discuss further details until his investigation is complete.

Seven-year-old Adrian Nicosia was so frightened by the time her father picked her up that she wouldn’t talk for a while, said Kimberly Nicosia, the girl’s mother.

“It was just a lot of chaos,” said Kimberly Nicosia. “She doesn’t want to get on the bus again.” , DataTimes