Saturday, November 20, 2010
By John W. GOODWIN JR.
YOUNGSTOWN
School officials continue to investigate problems on school buses in the weeks after a new measure required students and parents to sign a contract governing behavior on school buses.
Betty Scott of Brentwood Avenue is upset her daughter and son, both students at Chaney High School, have been suspended indefinitely from riding the school bus after an incident Thursday. She said her children and two other kids were defending a student trying to ride the bus.
Scott said her children left home to catch the school bus as usual Thursday morning, but a phone call from her daughter a short time later let her know the morning would be anything but normal.
She said the children were boarding the bus when the driver refused to let another student board it because the driver did not think the child belonged on that bus.
Scott said there were a total of 15 children on the bus and someone hollered a profanity at the bus driver while the discussion about the student riding the bus took place. The driver called police.
Police reports say the bus driver told officers she wanted four particular students, including Scott’s children, removed from the bus. Scott’s 16-year-old son at first refused to leave, then, reports say, he refused to stop and identify himself to police once off the bus.
Police reports say officers grabbed the boy by his arm ordering him to stop walking. The boy, reports say, yanked his elbow away from the officer, swearing and telling the officer to get off of him. Police grabbed the boy by the shoulder and took him to the ground.
The boy was placed in a police car until Scott arrived at the scene, then was released to her custody. Both Scott’s children and two more students have been removed from riding the bus indefinitely.
Scott is upset her children can’t ride the bus before a formal investigation into the matter has been completed. She also is mad about the way her son was taken to the ground by officers.
“My son is not that type of child. He doesn’t cause problems like that. He wasn’t aggressive. He wasn’t resisting arrest or anything like that, and it just wasn’t necessary,” she said. “My kids are traumatized by this. You have made them guilty before the investigation.”
Superintendent Wendy Webb said Friday that she has a meeting scheduled with the parents and the bus driver. She said there will be consequences for any person involved who acted inappropriately. She said parents and students deserve safety and order on the buses.
“On a whole, parents want safety, and we have an obligation to provide that,” she said. “If there isn’t order, there is chaos.”
The incident took place three days after an altercation on another school bus that landed a 17-year-old boy in juvenile detention.
Matthew Spain, 17, of Ridge Road, was arrested after a physical altercation with a bus driver and an assistant after school Monday on the city’s South Side. A student captured the confrontation on video.
Community Busing employees said Spain chased the bus with a firearm after the altercation. Members of the Spain family say the boy did not have a gun and was actually assaulted by busing employees.
Both incidents come just weeks after the school district announced plans for a contract between parents and the district governing behavior on school buses.
The rules include obeying the driver, no fighting or verbal abuse, no eating or drinking on buses, no misbehaving at the bus stop and no yelling or shouting.
Scott said she has not signed a contract with the district concerning behavior. She said she is unaware of any parents who have actually seen the pact.
John Terry Allen, ombudsman for the schools, said officials are working to make sure every parent sees and signs the contract for behavior. He said it is a new initiative and may not have reached every parent, but school officials are still asking for parental cooperation.
“We want safety on the bus,” Allen said. “We are asking parents to cooperate on this. We just can’t tolerate the bullying, the profanity and the hitting. It will not be tolerated anymore.”