Background: The intersection of East Hills Drive and Wilner Drive in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Google Maps). Inset: A person alleged to be Tanelle Day attacking a school bus driver (WPXI).
A Pennsylvania woman faces serious charges after allegedly assaulting a school bus driver due to a minor delay in her daughter’s pickup, authorities report.
Tanelle Day, aged 31, is charged with aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, and unauthorized entry onto a school bus, according to court documents examined by Law&Crime. The incident took place on January 15th.
The bus driver, Shayla Harris, was conducting her usual route for Propel Braddock Hills amid snowy conditions that morning, as reported by Pittsburgh’s NBC affiliate, WPXI. Upon reaching the intersection of East Hills Drive and Wilner Drive, Day allegedly forced open the bus doors, spilled her coffee, and launched a physical attack on Harris.
Surveillance footage from the bus, reviewed by the local news station, captures the suspect confronting the driver, swatting away her arm as Harris attempts to protect herself. The footage shows Day repeatedly punching Harris while gripping her hair with the other hand.
“It’s something bus drivers deal with every day,” Harris shared with the station. “Parents can be unpredictable.”
Day reportedly justified her actions by claiming her daughter was left waiting in the cold. “She accused me of leaving her child out in the cold,” Harris recounted, noting her struggle to engage the brake as Day forced the doors open.
“What was going through my mind was to secure the bus, so that we didn’t drive into anything… to get her off the bus,” Harris told WPXI. “Everybody could have lost their lives that day because I was 5 minutes late. Very traumatizing. Most of the parents I’ve spoken with were very upset that this happened.”
In the video, a small figure wearing a pink backpack and whose face is blurred can be seen walking on the bus at the same time as the suspect, suggesting Day’s daughter witnessed the attack. Other children were apparently on board, including Harris’ son, who woke up from a nap to hear his mother’s screams, jumped on the suspect’s back and, with the help of two adults, got her off the bus.
Harris was reportedly treated for a concussion at a nearby hospital. She took a week to recover and was placed on a different bus route. Court records do not list an arrest date for Day, though a criminal complaint was filed against her on Monday.
Propel Braddock Hills is part of the Propel Schools network, which describes itself on its website as “a not-for-profit federation of charter schools dedicated to the mission of catalyzing the transformation of public education so that all children have access to high-performing public schools.”
Law&Crime reached out to Pittsburgh Public Schools for more information about the investigation.
