It's clear that a Center Township father made a mistake in boarding a school bus and confronting a student whom he believed was bullying his son.

According to the latest information available, the state police are considering filing charges against the father.

But while the incident is serious, so is the bus driver's error tied to the incident.

The driver, who had a doctor's appointment following the bus run in question, did not call for help during the incident and did not report what had happened to anyone until after the doctor's appointment.

After the appointment, the driver called his employer, Valley Lines, the Butler School District's busing contractor.

By that time, district officials already knew what happened. The fourth-grader who was threatened reported the incident when he arrived at school.

Shortly thereafter, police were called.

Pennsylvania law prohibits parents from entering school buses without authorization.

Parents would assume that the drivers transporting their children would recognize the importance of notifying district and bus company officials immediately after a situation like this.

There is no excuse for the bus driver's notification delay last week — not even a doctor's appointment and not even the fact that no one was hurt.

What occurred in Center Township last week should encourage other school bus contractors to review the proper responses and reporting procedures for this kind and other incidents that drivers might encounter during their runs.

"Ideally, he (the driver) would have called us right away," said Roxanne Wehr, Valley Lines manager.

Roger Snodgrass, Center Township Elementary School principal, was right in making the point "I hope everyone recognizes how serious an offense that was."

Snodgrass also was right that it is drivers' responsibility to follow up on incidents that they observe or are reported to them.

On Sept. 3 in Sanford, Fla., a father whose 12-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy was bullied stormed a school bus to confront her taunters. He faces charges.

The girl had been teased, spit on, poked and pushed.

Earlier this month, police in Goose Creek, S.C., arrested a father who entered a school bus and made verbal threats directed at a boy who the father claimed had assaulted his son on the bus the previous day.

Unlike the Valley Lines driver, the South Carolina driver put out a distress call to the transportation department, summoning the police.

Presumably the father in the Center Township incident will face some kind of punishment when the state police investigation has concluded.

The father who stormed the Florida bus will participate in a panel discussion on bullying on Nov. 1 during a school transportation conference in Oregon.

There was a time people here might not have been interested in the goings-on at that conference. Unfortunately, as a result of last week's incident, that has changed.