Copley Middle School Trip Home Delayed by Bus Mishap

Update: Copley-Fairlawn Schools Superintendent Brian Poe said the company involved in an April Copley High School bus trip in which a bus caught fire is the same company involved in a mishap today with a Copley Middle School students on a trip from Washington D.C. 

"We'll take a look at it," Poe said of the accident that left a tour bus carrying Copley Middle schoolers stuck on a bolder. "From the pictures I've seen, it doesn't look that serious," Poe said. "The bus is about two-and-a-half hours behind, but there were no injuries. Everyone is fine."

The  students were on their way home from a trip to Washington D.C. and got an unexpected free lunch today while they waited for a tow truck to attend to their bus.

School officials said the bus driver misjudged a turn and ran over a bolder used in a landscape design.  No one was hurt, but the rear of the bus had to be lifted off the rock. Students were taken off the bus -- and out to lunch -- and are now on the same bus headed home. 

District officials called parents of the students at about 3 p.m. to let them know that rumors of a crash had been exaggerated. According to the district's recorded messages, students on the bus were never endangered.

This is the second out-of-town bus mishap for the district.

In April, about 250  students and 30 chaperones were on their way home from a school trip from New York when a bus they were riding in lost a rear tire and subsequently caught fire. Nearly half of the bus was destroyed in the blaze, but no one was injured.  

Students are expected to return home from their annual D.C. trip at about 10:30 p.m. Poe said.