Authorities have shed more light in the alleged assault of a student by a Massachusetts school bus driver in Ashby on Tuesday.
Video of the incident shows “the bus driver physically handle the student,” North Middlesex Regional School District Superintendent Brad Morgan said.
“Quite honestly, I was horrified by it,” he added.
No injuries were reported in the incident, which took place after Hawthorne Middle School in Townsend was out and the bus was dropping students off in nearby Ashby. Ashby police are seeking a summons for the driver, a 64-year-old Ashby man, Chief Derek Pepple said in a statement.
Dee Bus Services confirmed Wednesday that the driver, who hasn’t been publicly identified, no longer works for the company.
The contractor has previously said in a statement that they “have no tolerance for this alleged behavior” and were cooperating with the investigation.
Morgan said that “the bus driver went too far” in the incident, in which, according to the video, he pulled the bus over, asked the student to move and, when the student didn’t, put his hands on the student.
The student appeared to lose their balance in the aisle, and the driver maintained contact, according to Morgan. It ended up with the driver “on top of the student.”
The only reason for an adult to put their hands on a student would be for safety concerns, and “it did not look like the student’s safety was being threatened,” Morgan said.
He’s spoken with the father of the student, who “was extremely upset, and rightfully so.”
Amanda-Lee Gross said her two daughters, who were driven by the same man for years, would often tell her about the driver pulling over because of kids being rowdy. She said she believes parents should also hold their children accountable.
“I’m concerned for mainly the bus driver, because he literally has to stop and that’s really, really distracting, and if kids are doing things in the back of the bus that they are not supposed to be doing, that could cause an accident.”
But Morgan said that a student’s behavior is not an excuse for putting hands on them.
“If the way kids were behaving was creating such an issue, the bus should’ve turned around and come back to the school and let the building administration handle it,” he said.
