Parent charged with grabbing student by the neck on field trip bus

A parent on a Mountain Home School District field trip bus was taken into custody following an incident in which he allegedly grabbed a student by the neck Thursday afternoon on the bus.

Deputies from the Ada County Sheriff's Office and Idaho State Police responded to a call just after 2 p.m., believed to have been initiated by the bus driver, of a confrontation between a parent who had been accompanying his child on the field trip and a student who was not his own child.

The parent was identified as Manuel Hernandez, 35, of Mountain Home.

The bus was carrying special needs students from Hacker Middle School on a field trip to the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa. The incident occurred on the return trip.

According to Andrea Dearden, a spokesperson for the Ada County Sheriff's Office, "for reasons unknown at this point, Hernandez allegedly reached forward over the back of a passenger seat, grabbed a student by the neck, and lifted him up off the seat that way."

The incident apparently lasted "several minutes," Dearden said.

Manuel Hernandez is accused of grabbing a student by the neck during a field trip bus ride Thursday.

The driver stopped the bus at the I-84 rest stop in Ada County near the Ada and Elmore county line. State police arrived soon after, followed almost immediately by Ada County deputies.

Hernandez was removed from the bus shortly afterward and booked into the Ada County Jail on a misdemeanor battery charge. He was later released after posting a $300 bond.

Mountain Home School District officials said the parents of the students on the bus had been notified before the bus returned home.

The investigation is continuing at this point.