Police are reminding Connecticut drivers that you should be treating the stop sign you see on the school bus the same way you treat a stop sign in your neighborhood.

We spoke to people in North Haven who say it scares them to see more and more reports of drivers running through school buses’ stop signs.

“If that was your child, you wouldn’t want that happening,” Toni Martone, a North Haven parent, said.  “I hope that they understand that it’s a little kid, and if you hit someone, you have to deal with the law.”

“I saw two times this week that they go right by the school buses,” Nick Grillo, of North Haven, said. “They don’t stop, they just keep going like it’s a racetrack.”

Connecticut law says it’s a $475 fine for your first offense of passing a bus, and repeat violations could result in arrest.

The North Haven Police Department shared a reminder on Thursday, but it’s a problem all throughout the state.

The Norwalk Police Department posted a reminder, too, as well as a video, where you can see a car blow through a bus stop sign.

The Waterbury Police Department said they’ve issued 97 infractions since the start of this school year, where people have illegally passed a bus.

In Bridgeport, over 10,000 citations have been issued for school bus passing from the start of this school year until February.

“I think the majority is inattentive driving, and everybody seems like they’re always in a rush. People are speeding. They’re not realizing it. They’re not paying attention what’s going on in front of them,” Lt. Joel Lenda, of Groton Town Police Department, said.

In Groton, Lenda said parents and bus drivers alike make reports in waves throughout the school year.

He said if police have the license plate, which school bus cameras help with, they can track down the driver in question.

A common error Lenda said he sees drivers make is not thinking the stop sign applies to them in a multiple lane road.

“Your typical two-lane, four-lane road with a double yellow down the middle, everybody in every direction is required to stop,” Lenda said.

A 2024 law allowed school buses to install cameras, with police retroactively able to review the footage. North Haven said they’re exploring automated enforcement.

Thursday will be mostly sunny with a brisk breeze and high temperatures in the high-40s to low-50s.

Then, clouds with a few showers or snow showers are on the way after midnight.

Friday will be partly sunny with high temperatures around 60.

We are in for some periods of rain later Friday night and early Saturday.

Then, we could have quite a warm-up as the weekend begins.

Temperatures on Saturday could possibly get into the 70s while they are in the 40s in Boston and 80 in New York City.

On Sunday, we will have a drizzle and showers with a high temperature around 50.

WATERBURY — The biological mother of the man who says he was held captive for 20 years came forward Wednesday to blast the alleged wicked step-mother who is charged with abusing her son.

Tracy Vallerand also tried to explain why she gave up the boy shortly after he was born.

“I don’t hate people at all,” Vallerand said of Kimberly Sullivan. “This one, I hate.”

Sullivan, 56, had a brief hearing that ended before she could even enter a plea on the cruelty and kidnapping charges she faces. She is out on $300,000 bail after she was accused of forcing her step-son to live in a tiny 8-foot-by-9-foot room that was locked from the outside.

Sullivan rushed into a waiting car as her two daughters, the victim’s half-sisters, broke toward another vehicle.

Vallerand, 52, was in court with her own daughter, Heather Tessman.

She told reporters that she gave up her son when he was just 6 months old and left his father Kraigg Sullivan to raise him with his new wife Kimberly.

“Things didn’t work out between the two of us, and I was thinking that I was giving my son a better chance at a full life. If I had known…what…I just can’t fathom it. I have no words,” Vallerand said, according to NBC Connecticut.

“There was a park that I was told Kraigg would actually take him for walks. I would park there and be there for hours just trying to see if I’d see him. Never seen him,” she said.

Vallerand said she tried to find her son after he turned 18, but he has no social media. By then, cops said, he had been held in captivity for at least seven years — having allegedly been pulled out of school and confined inside at age 11.

“Can’t fathom it. Then to have her two daughters in the house as well,” she said. “What were they doing? Were they waiting for him to actually die? What were they gonna do then?” Vallerand said.

“What she did is sub-human. You can’t get away with that,” said the victim’s half-sister, Tessman.

After the hearing, Sullivan’s attorney Ioannis A. Kaloidis said that the proceedings had been continued to Friday because the state wants to put her under electronic monitoring.

When asked why Sullivan is shocked by the allegations — even though her adult stepson allegedly hadn’t been seen in 20 years and weighed just 68 pounds when authorities found him — Kaloidis said it’s the state’s job to prove his client actually committed the crimes.

“The great thing about this system is we don’t have to explain it,” Kaloidis said “The state has made allegations. The state has to prove those allegations in court. Those allegations are serious, but those allegations are made by one person.”

“I understand the whole world has jumped on those allegations and has already convicted my client,” he continued. “The good thing about America is that that’s not how we work. She’s presumed innocent until proven otherwise in court.

“Right now, they’re just allegations,” he said. “I’m sorry that she’s been convicted worldwide and everyone wants to proceed to a lynching, but we have a system. She has rights.”