Izaak Croft, 8, checks out a computer at home. (CBC) Halifax Metro Transit is denying a family's claim that a frustrated bus driver kicked their eight-year-old autistic son off a bus because he was screaming.

Lori Patterson, a transit spokeswoman, said though the driver could have handled the matter better, a surveillance tape shows that Izaak Croft and a group of autistic children got off the bus by choice.

The investigation continues and staff are talking with the driver, she told CBC News Thursday.

On Wednesday, Izaak was on a summer camp excursion to the Discovery Centre in downtown Halifax with Autism Society Nova Scotia. The group of about a dozen autistic children and their camp counsellors left and jumped on public transit.

David Croft said his son began to scream and cry during the ride down Spring Garden Road. A counsellor told him that the driver ordered Izaak off the bus.

"I thought it was a display of intolerance," Croft said. "To me it was as if a crying baby was being told to get off."

Croft said his son is often over-stimulated by loud noises and large groups. Although the outbursts can be unsettling and disruptive, he said, that's no reason to kick him off.

Izaak should have been left alone, Croft said.

"Izaak was just responding to those environmental stimulus just like that baby would be, and to me it was no different and the driver went way, way beyond the pale," he said.

Croft said the entire group walked off the bus, and then camp counsellors were refused transfers. The group waited for another bus and eventually made its way back to camp headquarters on Joseph Howe Drive.

No sign boy told to leave: spokeswoman

Patterson said a bus driver can order someone off for safety reasons. In this case, she said, the driver couldn't concentrate.

The surveillance tape from the bus shows the driver telling a counsellor that he would have to stop if the screaming didn't, she said, adding the driver said, "I can't drive if that keeps up."

Lori Patterson, spokeswoman for Metro Transit, says the bus driver could have handled the matter better. (CBC) Patterson said there's no sign that Izaak was told to leave. In fact, the boy and a counsellor jumped off, then the group followed suit a couple of stops later, she said.

But Patterson suggested the driver could have done things differently.

"The operator didn't handle it very smoothly," she said.

As for the transfers, Patterson said other children and counsellors weren't handed any because they were one of the special groups riding for free.

Charlene Croft, Izaak's mother, doesn't know what to think of Metro Transit's version of events.

"I invite anyone from Metro Transit to come to my home and sit down with me and talk to me and David and interact with our children a little bit, and tell us that to our face," she told CBC News.

Croft doesn't want anyone suspended or fired. Instead, she wants to sit down with the driver and transit officials to educate them about autism.

David Croft said he's pleased with the service that Metro Transit provides to autistic children in Halifax, but he expects drivers to adapt more quickly to their needs.

He said children with autism don't qualify to take the Access-A-Bus, a door-to-door bus service for people with physical or cognitive disabilities.

With files from The Canadian Press