A Cobb bus driver is out of police custody after authorities said he broke into the home of a 10-year-old girl on Monday.
The student’s mother, Cassie Cea, said the driver had been asking her daughter “weird questions” about their family and visited her neighborhood several times in the weeks leading up to his arrest.
“I’m just really freaked out,” Cea told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a telephone interview on Friday. “He was definitely up to something bad — I just don’t know how bad it was.”
Gogineni Rayudu, 56, was accused of walking in the front door, closing the door behind him and asking for Cea, according to the warrant for his arrest. Rayudu said he was there to check on her daughter and identified himself as her bus driver.
When Cea asked Rayudu why he was there, he fled, according to the warrant. School was not in session on Monday, when Cea said Rayudu entered the home. Her daughter was at camp and wasn’t there. She said Rayudu was wearing gloves.
Cea later spoke with her neighbors and a security officer for the neighborhood, who said that Rayudu had visited the area multiple times in the last month, asking about her daughter. Her daughter told her that the driver is her “special friend,” and that he changed her seat on the bus to be where he could see her and talk to her.
“I don’t know what this obsession is with her, but all I can think of is if I hadn’t been there, what would have happened?” Cea said.
Rayudu was arrested Tuesday and charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor loitering. He was released from police custody Thursday after making the $20,000 bond.
“I’m just in shock that he already posted bail,” Cea said. She obtained personal protective orders for her family, she said, and has been advised to call the police if they see Rayudu.
Cea said he had been her daughter’s driver for about two months. But she said when she called the district about him after the incident, they wouldn’t tell her the name of the driver for her daughter’s bus.
“My kid’s never getting on a bus again,” she said. “I don’t even know if I want her in public school anymore, because are we taking this serious? Or are we just like, ‘Oh, he’s a weirdo’?”
The Cobb County School District did not respond to questions about Rayudu’s employment.
“The district is fully cooperating with the active police investigation,” it said in a statement. “In addition to actions taken by law enforcement, district policy will be strictly applied. The safety of our students is our number one priority.”
Two Cobb bus drivers have faced criminal charges in recent years for their interactions with students.
A former Cobb bus driver was charged last year with child molestation after police identified two adult victims and one minor. And in 2021, a judge issued an arrest warrant for a Cobb bus driver accused of assaulting a student after the father said he fought with the district for nearly two years to hold the driver accountable.
AJC reporter David Aaro contributed to this article.
