RAID does the unthinkable

Daniel J. Mancuso
IVN staff

What normally is a quiet morning dropping her child off for the bus turned into a traumatizing event for one mother when members of the JMET served a warrant across the road from a school bus that was loading children.
Three Rivers School District Superintendent David Valenzuela called it “a very rare type of incident.” “Nothing quite like this has happened to one of our buses in my recollection,” he added.
The morning of Oct. 10, around 8 a.m. Heather Murphy was waiting for a school bus at the end of the pavement on Crooks Creek Road in Selma with her fifth grade daughter when something alarming happened.
The bus on route C-10 was pulling to the stop with a line of law enforcement vehicles behind the bus.
“I was waiting to drop my daughter off at the end of the paved portion of the road when I saw the bus coming and behind it was a string of marked and unmarked units with lights on,” Murphy said.
According to Murphy, 10 or so units pulled into one driveway to the farm while additional units pulled into the driveway closer to the bus with weapons drawn. “I could hear the police making commands like ‘come out with your hands up,’ over a loud horn,” she said.
The driver of the bus didn’t know what was going on and attempted to pull up further than normal, telling Murphy her child should remain in her vehicle and not go to the bus.
At that point law enforcement opened the gate and then police pulled into the property clearing the area where children were. The driver following First Student policy, had the children on the floor of the bus for nearly 10 minutes. The bus driver exited the bus when a member of the raid team was walking by and was called over.
“We asked basic questions like what’s going on here? Do you know there is a bus load of children here? Then finally telling us it was safe to leave,”said Murphy, adding, “While apologizing, the officer said he didn’t even realize they were holding up or even following a school bus!”
In the aftermath Murphy wanted answers about how this could happen. For her it was not just an armed raid on a farm: “They followed a school bus to address and pulled out guns in front of children and claimed to not know a school bus was there.” She also said that her daughter mentioned that the other students were “shook up and confused” that day.
Out of the gate Three Rivers School District took a proactive approach. Murphy received a call from Three Rivers Director of Transportation Rob Saunders. Murphy stated that Halsted claimed that he was personally calling the parents of each student on the bus.
Murphy was told by First Student that they were in contact with the sheriff’s office and that the driver followed protocol during the incident. That sentiment was echoed by Valenzuela: “The bus driver followed all appropriate protocols to keep the students safe and was released from the scene without incident.”
In a call to Sheriff Dave Daniel, he explained that the raid was a federal raid and his office was not involved in scheduling, but assisted with personnel. Daniel’s policy is to coordinate with the bus schedules and work around that. “We can’t tell them where or when, but we get the route’s detailed information and we move in before or after the time of the stop,” said Daniel. “Our job is to protect the public and that includes our children.”
As for Murphy, she isn’t happy and doesn’t want to see anything like this happen again, however she is grateful for what didn’t happen. ”It was the best case scenario how it ended up and it was traumatizing for the children. I hope more protocols are put in place so it never happens again. What if shots were fired and a hostage situation happened and I’m grateful that it went as smoothly as it did considering the scenario.”
A week after the incident Murphy’s daughter does not appear to show any trauma.