A Michigan school bus driver has been suspended and is possibly facing criminal charges after a video of her fighting a minor while on the job has gone viral. Conflicting stories are floating about how and why the brawl started, but regardless of what the reasons are, the woman may lose her job.
On Monday, Oct. 24, a contracted bus driver for the Detroit Public Schools Community District was filmed beating up a 7th-grade student she was assigned to transport to her middle school. The bus that serves Carver STEM Academy on Paul Street was parked when fists started to fly, The Detroit News reports.
Students pulled out their cellphones and captured what the 12-year-old child’s parents will now use as evidence against the Trinity Transportation driver.
While the footage does not show the beginning of the fight, it shows the woman with an orange safety vest grabbing the girl by the neck and tossing her on a seat in the rear of the bus. Young girls are screaming in the background and one tries to alert someone else, presumably outside the window or on a phone call, about the fight.
That video was then posted on TikTok and other forms of social media.
The footage from the cellphone is the only footage presented so far. Usually, there are surveillance cameras on the buses, but officials say those cameras were not functioning at the time of the incident.
Within hours after becoming aware of the altercation, the district contacted Trinity Transportation and the woman was removed from her duties and possibly may be fired.
According to a statement released by the district, “The driver was removed from DPSCD service and may face termination through the bus contractor. The incident is also under police investigation by the DPSCD Police Department.”
In an interview with Fox 2 Detroit, the mother of the girl said her daughter was waving at her brother when the driver came back to her, tapped her on the shoulder, and told her to “sit her a## down.” When the child clapped back and allegedly asked her “who she was talking to,” the adult started punching the minor.
The driver’s account of what happened is different. She says the young lady approached her and struck her first.
The family has now secured representation. Their lawyer, Lillian Diallo, said when she was first contacted regarding the incident, she believed the footage was “fake.”
“I thought it was a fake video when the family contacted me last night,” Diallo said. “It was such a vicious attack. How does a grown woman bite a child? Not just the beating part, you bit her in her face.”
The child, whose name has not been released, said her daughter has bruises on her face and body as a result of the assault and is now afraid to go to school.
The lawyer told Click On Detroit, the child is “traumatized.” Diallo also said while the school released a statement about the press, the girl’s mom said they did not immediately reach out to her and that she learned about the fight from her children.
“All those kids are traumatized by the behavior of one person that did not know how to cope,” Diallo stated.
When quoting her young client, Diallo repeated in her client’s voice, “She started to hit me in my face, and she bit my face, and she would not stop.”
“She tried to choke me to death as my brother is outside and parents, adults, and children are trying to get on the bus,” Diallo said the seventh grader told her.
Another issue the child brought up, according to the lawyer, was that a bus attendant, assigned to keep order and supervise the students, did not do anything while she was getting beaten up.
“The bus assistant did not help me, and he did not break up the fight or let anyone on the bus,” the attorney said the child told her.
No word on if the monitor is being held accountable for not jumping in and stopping the fight.
