Horry County Schools has reached a settlement in a lawsuit involving a young girl whose arm was trapped in a moving school bus door (The Bailey Law Firm via WMBF).
A South Carolina mother has resolved her legal case against a local school district after alleging that a bus driver kept driving while her 8-year-old daughter’s arm was stuck in the bus door.
Under the settlement, Horry County School District will pay Stephanie Floyd-McInnis $175,000. The lawsuit claimed the district was negligent in hiring driver Thomas Michael Interlandi and failed to properly train him for the role.
“As a mother, my first priority is to make sure that my daughter is safe and cared for at all times,” Floyd-McInnis told local NBC affiliate WMBF. “This bus driver and the school system failed my child in this instance. While we are looking forward to putting this matter behind us, I felt it was important to step up for my daughter and to also ensure that other parents were made aware of what transpired on that bus in the hopes that no other child has to go through something like this.”
The federal complaint, reviewed by Law&Crime, said the incident happened on Aug. 25, 2023, in the Conway area. The child was preparing to exit the school bus at her stop when she noticed dogs nearby that frightened her and moved back inside. According to the lawsuit, Interlandi “angrily demanded” that she get off the bus, but the girl refused because she was afraid of the dogs.
The complaint alleged that Interlandi then closed the door, pinning the child’s arm, and began backing the bus up to move away from the dogs. Although the girl told him her arm was trapped, he allegedly continued driving. Attorneys for the family said Interlandi told the child that getting her arm caught “serves you right.” He later allegedly told a bus aide that the girl “shouldn’t have put her hand there,” while complaining, “you see what I have to go through?”
Tyler D. Bailey, an attorney for the plaintiff with the Bailey Law Firm, argued in court filings that the bus driver’s conduct could not be dismissed as a simple mistake.
“Rather, it was an inhumane abuse of official power and shocking to the conscious to the extent that he was later arrested by law enforcement and criminally charged for his actions in this matter,” Bailey wrote.
Charges of unlawfully placing a child at risk or causing harm were later dismissed. The district let Interlandi go after the incident.
The girl suffered “severe” injuries that required medical treatment.
“No parent should have to wonder whether their child is safe on the ride home from school,” Bailey told WMBF. “Stephanie stood up for her daughter, and in doing so she stood up for every child on those buses. This resolution holds the system accountable and forces a conversation about the safeguards our schools owe these kids.”
The post ‘Serves you right’: Bus driver kept going with 8-year-old girl’s arm caught in door because he was mad she didn’t want to get off, lawsuit says first appeared on Law & Crime.
