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SANDY — When Marisela Brown's 5-year-old daughter told her parents about her school bus driver, it immediately raised red flags.
"She tried to talk to my husband about the situation on the bus. At first, he was really confused," she said.
Brown's husband even tried following his daughter's bus to school. Finally, on April 26, the Browns went to Canyons School District officials with their concerns and an investigation was opened by police.
On Tuesday, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office was still reviewing the case of a school bus driver who is accused of sexually abusing young children. As of Tuesday afternoon, the man had not been charged or even arrested, but he has resigned from his job.
Police said three months of surveillance video from the bus is among the evidence detectives have collected and turned over to prosecutors.
Brown believes the driver may have convinced the children that the abuse was part of the bus riding experience.
The man drove pre-school children to a special education program at Altara Elementary School, 800 E. 11000 South. Brown said she believes there were about four children, including her daughter, on the bus.
She said the bus driver seemed like a nice man.
"He looked like a wonderful grandpa," she said. "That was really hard for me to know about. I believed it was a mistake."
But his bus route soon became longer without a good reason.
"He wanted earlier to be able to have more time. We believed in our minds that there were more children. As far as I know there are four children, I don't think there are more. … I never saw other children," said Brown, who spoke in Spanish.
While Brown does not blame the district or the school for what happened to her daughter, she believes more should be done to prevent similar abuse from happening in the future.
"We will find a solution," she said. "We feel we have to work hard to change procedures for the school."
Brown believes all buses should be required to have at least two adults on board, both the driver and a monitor. "Moms are the best police," she said. "We have to be a third eye."
Brown said she doesn't know what would have happened if all of the alleged victims were too young to talk.
"We have to work as a team to get past this problem. Today it was my child, but I don't know what could happen tomorrow," she said. "I don't want there to be other victims. I would rather we prevent this."
The Browns want to refocus on their daughter's education. Marisela Brown said her daughter is making progress in the special ed program and would like to continue it.
Contributing: McKenzie Romero
