School bus attacked for 2nd day in a row

One girl stood in front of the bus to taunt passengers.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Rowdy youths stopped and threw rocks at a school bus carrying high school students, the second day in a row a bus was attacked at the same intersection, police said.

One student was injured and three teens were arrested in the Wednesday incident.

A passenger who could see the commotion from another bus said the youths were shouting “north side” and “east side” at each other.

“It was crazy,” said Georgette Woods, 15, a sophomore at Whetstone High School. “It’s the ’hoods. Columbus is made up of so many ’hoods. ... They just wanted to fight.”

The driver, whose name was not released by Columbus Public Schools, called for help on her cell phone, saying she couldn’t run over a girl who was standing in front of the bus taunting passengers.

Charles Turner, one of the Independence High School students who got off the bus, was taken to Grant Medical Center with a broken leg, police said. There were no other injuries. Grant spokesman Colin Yoder said Thursday that he had no information on Turner.

Stephan Jackson, 16, was charged with felony delinquency counts of aggravated riot and disrupting public transportation, police spokeswoman Amanda Ford said. Police said he threw a rock through a bus window. Joaysa Miller, 14, was arrested on the same charges, Ford said. Police say she was the girl who blocked the bus’s path. Raymond Hill, 15, was charged with one felony count of aggravated riot, Ford said.

“The initial impression is that it was a planned event,” police Sgt. Christ Holzhauser said.

The Wednesday attack followed one Tuesday during which rocks were thrown at a bus at the same site, but no windows were broken.

Ford said Thursday that police were watching city school bus routes. The school district had extra transportation and safety personnel along routes on Thursday and buses were moving without incident, district spokesman Jeff Warner said.