April Disspain, Tony Chastain and Mariah Quinones

Introduction

April Michelle Disspain, 34, Tony Ray Chastain, 35, and Mariah Quinones, 35, are Lumpkin County, Georgia, adults facing criminal charges after they boarded a school bus carrying Cottrell Elementary School students and removed children, acting on a claim investigators found false — that the substitute driver had held the children for over half an hour without air conditioning. The Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office issued arrest warrants Wednesday, September 16, 2026; by Thursday all three had been arrested. The confrontation at the Highland Trace Apartments in Dahlonega began as a drop-off dispute and escalated until students activated the emergency-release mechanism and adults forced their way aboard — an episode caught on bystander video that spread on Facebook before bus-camera footage told a different story.

Background Information

The incident unfolded on Monday, September 14, 2026, when a substitute school bus driver with eight years of experience — working the Highland Trace route for the first time — was dropping off children from Cottrell Elementary School. The bus, numbered 22-36, served two designated stops within the apartment complex. Students assigned to the first stop were permitted to exit; one student assigned to the second stop exited early and was directed back onto the bus, and the driver then tried to settle the remaining students so the route could continue. Interior surveillance later showed the route had been troubled from the start: school administrators and an assistant principal had boarded the bus “on multiple occasions” before it even left school grounds because students were “yelling, fighting, moving between seats, throwing objects, and refusing to follow instructions.” Police said the problems continued en route.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The claims in this section are allegations from the Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office warrant applications and statements, as reported by the NY Post, WSB-TV, the Dahlonega Nugget and WGTJ Radio, and the named adults have not been tried on any of them. The three have not been convicted of anything, and they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. No statement from Disspain, Chastain or Quinones in their own defense appears in the cited coverage.

As parents crowded the bus and spoke to children through the windows, students’ behavior escalated and the driver called the school for help. The driver kept the door closed for roughly 15 minutes until a second bus driver arrived to assist, and during that response the emergency-release mechanism was operated; a student who observed how it worked opened the door. Disspain, Chastain and Quinones were then caught on camera entering the bus as children were removed by adults. Sheriff Stacy Jarrard said two of the three “were using foul language in front of kids under 14 years of age.” Disspain allegedly forced her way onto the bus, made physical contact with the driver, removed multiple children and used profane language in front of the students; Chastain allegedly boarded, yelled and cursed at the driver, demanded children be released and encouraged their unauthorized removal; Quinones allegedly boarded and removed her own child without authorization. The adults accused the driver of holding the kids for more than 30 minutes without air conditioning — claims investigators determined were false.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The confrontation drew immediate community attention — a bystander video posted to Facebook, with crying children clearly audible, caused “considerable concern” and eventually pulled in Atlanta media. Sheriff Stacy Jarrard’s verdict: “with social media, you can’t always bank on it.” Warrants landed Wednesday: Disspain for simple battery, disrupting the operation of a public-school bus, and disorderly conduct; Chastain for disrupting the operation of a public-school bus and disorderly conduct; and Quinones for disrupting the operation of a public-school bus, with no probable cause found for assault, battery, threat or disorderly-conduct charges against her. Jarrard said his office cleared the charges with the District Attorney’s Office — “they were the ones that said ‘Yes, go with the charges’” — and with the school system, which “said ‘Yes we want this.’” By Thursday, the sheriff’s office confirmed all three had been arrested. The driver, meanwhile, was cleared outright: police found no probable cause to charge her with any crime.

Current Status

The three face charges that remain untested in court, and the sheriff’s office said the investigation remains open. Investigators have subpoenaed additional school-system and student records to identify the children present on the bus, confirm their designated stops and ages, determine which children were removed by adults other than their legal guardians, and identify any additional witnesses — with the office stating it “will take any additional investigative or legal action supported by the evidence.” The sheriff’s office stated that its investigation found no evidence the driver intentionally withheld air conditioning as punishment, shut off the bus engine while children were being held, or ignored a medical emergency; the air conditioning had only been switched off temporarily while the bus climbed a steep stretch because it strained the gasoline-powered bus, and was back on before the confrontation began. Investigators also established that the children were on the bus for only 14 to 15 minutes before the second driver arrived — not the 30-plus minutes the adults had claimed.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For three adults with no prior public profile, the fallout is immediate and lasting: criminal charges, arrests, and their names attached to an incident that became a national news story and a flashpoint about parents taking matters into their own hands — all over a grievance the official investigation found to be untrue. Disspain carries the heaviest exposure, with a simple battery count alleging physical contact with the driver on top of the disruption and disorderly conduct counts; Chastain and Quinones face the disruption count, Quinones’s case complicated by the fact that she removed her own child. The case has also become a warning shot for the community: the sheriff’s office has made clear that the viral version of events — the driver as villain — did not survive contact with the bus’s own surveillance footage, and that parents who board a school bus, even to protect children they believe are in danger, can end up the ones charged. Whatever the courts decide, the episode stands as a case study in how quickly a Facebook-fueled narrative can collapse into criminal charges for the people who told it.