Cooper Fleishman reports on the video of a special needs child being burned, screamed at and beaten up on a school bus, and wonders what could have been done to prevent such horrifying abuse.
Originally appeared at HyperVocal
This horrific security video shows two high schoolers ganging up on Cequan Haskins, a 10-year-old with special needs, in a nearly empty school bus. The bullies hold down Haskins, scream racial slurs at him and finally burn him with a cigarette lighter. No one is there to help him; the bus driver, Nancy Davis, tells them to quiet down, but she never intervenes.
Davis was acquitted of child neglect several months ago. The two attackers were found guilty of disorderly conduct, assault and battery.
Cequan’s mother, Roxanne Haskins, held a press conference in Virginia and released the video to the public to hold the bullies accountable and show the nation what schoolchildren go through — and how often their experiences get unreported or ignored.
Who should be held accountable here? Should the driver have gotten off so easily? And what can be done to ensure this never happens again?
About Cooper Fleishman
Send them to a place to see what the effects of disability can do to a person. Show them the pain n suffering felt, send the message home to them. Maybe they will grow some empathy, especially if they’re made to work at a place (supervised at all times) to help those who are less fortunate.
In fairness, the bus driver is in an impossible situation. She could hardly leave the wheel to come back there and sort it all out. Not to mention that she already has a full time job driving and concentrating on the road.
The only real solution is to have an authority figure (maybe a parent) ride the bus and keep things under control. It’s unreasonable to expect the bus driver or other kids to become a security guard.
As a school bus driver myself, I find that the driver didn’t do her job well. Yes, driving the bus and keeping eyes on the road is important. But so is the safety of every child on the bus. My big question to her: “If you hear noises on the bus that so distracting, why didn’t you pull over and get out of your seat and stop them.” I sure would have. Those boys were up and down, running all over the bus, not staying in their seats, which is a requirement of the bus rules. On my bus, I pull over where it is safe to stop and wait. Imo, the boys should not be allowed to ride the bus for the remainder of the time they are going to the school. The principal needs to remind that riding the school bus is a PRIVILEGE and not a right. Until it becomes the right of every student to ride, school bus drivers need to enforce the rules. There is a lack of respect for authority and no regard for a person’s well being. This is not a “boys will be boys” thing. As children, WE did NOT get away with this type of behavior. I hope the boys who were bullying will understand that what they did is not acceptable. As for the driver, I hope she will do something the next time this happens. And a bus monitor doesn’t help, just look at what happened to that bus monitor on a different bus just sat there while the teens around her picked on her. What ever happened to standing up and saying “NO!”? Unless a person makes the choice to take ACTiON then the bullies win. Time for the bullies to loose and be humbled.
I also am a bus driver and would have pulled over at a safe stop and done something. The special needs student should have been sitting close to the driver so that this kind of thing would hopefully been avoided. There were few enough students that they should not have been allowed to sit in close proximity to the SN child. EVERY child deserves our help if at all possible.
I am one who believes that a trained attendent or monitor should be on every bus that has a SN student to better insure their safety. Given the size difference of the students, I believe the monitor on that bus should have been a male.
I am surprised that this bus driver was aloud to keep her job.