Inset: Anthony Chavis (Marlboro County Detention Center). Background: Marlboro County Detention Center (Google Maps).
A father in South Carolina was arrested after allegedly chasing a school bus with 19 students on board and forcing it off the road. He then attempted to break into the bus by damaging the door and back window. This incident followed after the father was informed by school officials about accusations that a bus monitor had assaulted his son earlier that day.
The father, Anthony Chavis, and the bus monitor, Sharona F. Cooper, were both taken into custody and now face felony charges.
The father, Chavis, faces multiple charges, including interfering with school bus operations, child endangerment, threatening a school principal, aggravated breach of peace, damaging government property, and disrupting a school. The bus monitor, Cooper, is charged with third-degree assault.
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According to a news release from the Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office, the situation began on May 22 when students reported that Cooper allegedly assaulted a student who refused to sit in their assigned seat. Surveillance footage purportedly shows Cooper using her arm to keep the student from moving down the bus aisle.
Shortly after that incident, Chavis came to the school to pick up his five children. While there, he allegedly became “verbally abusive” toward administration and law enforcement staff, using “profanity and racial slurs and physical motions” to intimidate the other adults.
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Sometime after Chavis picked up his children, the bus departed the school to transport students back home. Authorities say Chavis then “followed the bus and forced the bus off the road,” then used his own car and “blocked its path.” While forcing the bus from the road, authorities said Chavis car and the bus “made contact.”
“As Chavis exited his vehicle, he struck the bus numerous times with his fist; he then attempted to forcibly open the entrance door of the bus to gain entry, which was unsuccessful, causing damage to the door,” the release states. “Then, as the bus was finally able to circumvent Chavis’s car, he threw an object, striking the back glass of the bus and damaging the window. Notably, the bus had 19 children, a bus driver, and the female bus monitor on board, as well as his five kids in his vehicle, during the entirety of the incident.”
Investigators said that just as the alleged assault involving the bus monitor, the incident involving Chavis was also captured by a surveillance camera.
Chavis was denied bond because at the time of the alleged attack he was already out of jail on bond for prior assault charges. Cooper also remained in detention awaiting a bond hearing as of Monday, Myrtle Beach NBC affiliate WMBF reported.
