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Jackson County school bus found

By Eric Sollman
WAFF 48 News Reporter

A stolen school bus turns out to be more than an early morning joyride after it's taken from a Jackson County school.

The bus was found smashed, bashed and burned.

North Jackson Principal Sam Houston says in his 13 years as an educator, he's never seen anything like what happened to one school bus.

It's tonight's WAFF 48 Investigators Report.

"When the bus driver got here Tuesday morning her bus was gone," says Houston.

This Jackson County bus fleet sits behind North Jackson High School in Stevenson.

Houston says around 1:15 Tuesday morning someone entered bus 214, cranked it, and drove off.

Busted glass and a beat-up bumper shows the beating this bus has taken.

From cruddy paneling to muddy tires, a beat-up backside of this Bluebird bus is only the beginning.

On the inside....lighter fluid leads to tinted windows, torched and taken several miles from the school.

"I'm amazed that they can get a bus at 1:30 in the morning from here without anybody seeing it, as far as they had to take it because it's 15-16-18 miles to Champion Springs," says Houston. 

Champion Springs Subdivision sits off County Road 54.

This is where the driver of the bus apparently dropped themselves off from school, leaving a log and a lot of mess.

"I'm not sure what to think, if it was a prank it's a sick prank," says Houston. 

Independent Towing picked up the bus, and it will sit in their lot until school officials decide what to do with it.

Bus 973, a spare used for field trips and athletic events, will take its place for the meantime.

School surveillance did catch some of this crime as it happened, but if you have any more information contact Stevenson Police.

You can send Eric a comment at esollman@waff.com.