School bus left 5-year-old girl at wrong spot. What happened next got NC mom arrested

An angry mother ended up in handcuffs after threatening “bodily harm” against the driver who left her child at the wrong bus spot, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office in eastern North Carolina.

Karly Rae Gurganus, 21, of Washington, N.C., was charged with communicating threats and disorderly conduct on a school bus, said the sheriff’s office release. The female school bus driver was not identified.

“The driver reported that...Gurganus tracked the bus down, got out of her vehicle, aggressively approached her window and threatened her with bodily harm while using profanity in front of the children still on the bus,” said the sheriff’s release. “Gurganus has also been banned from entering the property at Bath Elementary for the remainder of the school year.”

The incident happened around 4 p.m. Oct. 24 in Pinetown, 140 miles east of Raleigh, and the driver was a substitute, deputies said. Gurganus was arrested Oct. 29, after investigators reviewed security tapes, sheriff’s office investigators said in a release.

TV station WCIT reports Gurganus says the driver dropped her 5-year-old daughter off a half mile from home on a busy road, while investigators says it was only 100 feet past the family’s driveway.

Gurganus told WCTI her daughter was “crying and scared, so yes I did flip out...I did not threaten her (the driver) like every one is saying....She could have gotten kidnapped or hit by a car.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2018 at 1:19 PM.