Child beaten and bloodied on school bus highlights safety concerns

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WBFF) — A bloody school bus fight is caught on camera, and while it’s difficult to watch, the incident could be part of a bigger problem. It’s the latest example of concerns that bus drivers and parents have been voicing over school bus safety.

The video shows two students fighting on what we’re told is a Baltimore County school bus. One student is seen stomping on another child. As the bus driver yells to stop, one student gets off the bus, and the other is bleeding.

Project Baltimore showed the video to Delegate Nino Mangione who represents Baltimore County.

“Absolutely incredible. Blood coming from his head after being pummeled on the bus,” Mangione said as he watched the video for the first time. “How can you drive with that going on? Would you be surprised to see him retire or quit? I don’t think so. It’s truly unbelievable.”

The video was posted to Snapchat on March 10, and later sent to Project Baltimore.

“Here’s video proof that this type of stuff is happening,” said Mangione.

Mangione had not yet seen the video, but six days after it was posted online, he was on the House floor in Annapolis raising concerns over school bus safety.

Across the state, school systems don’t have enough school bus drivers, the delegates were considering a bill to commission a study on wages. That’s when Mangione addressed the chamber, asking for an amendment to the bill to include school bus violence in the study.

“I spoke about a woman named Alisha Matthews in Baltimore County who changed careers in order to become a school bus driver. And how she ended up quitting, was because of unsafe student behavior on her school bus,” Mangione said on the House floor.

Mangione had watched a Project Baltimore report in February, in which Alisha Matthews described alarming student behavior on the bus.

ALSO READ | Baltimore County school bus driver quits over safety, says students 'out of control'

“They’d throw water bottles, where I’m driving down the street, and a water bottle is under my foot,” Matthews told Project Baltimore. “The kids were hanging outside the bus by the mirrors.”

Matthews said she recently quit her job as a Baltimore County School bus driver, not because of the pay, but because her safety was at risk and her repeated reports to school leaders were ignored.

When Mangione spoke on the House floor earlier this month, he told lawmakers, “If we are going to look at bus driver shortages, I think we need to look at all of the issues. Not just the financial ones.”

During the hearing in Annapolis, opponents to Mangione’s amendment said most evidence shows bus driver shortages are driven by insufficient wages.

“As you go about your districts, you hear from parents all the time about the bus driver shortage, from your local school system about bus driver shortage. You didn’t hear about behavior on the actual bus itself,” said Delegate Alonzo T. Washington from Prince George’s County during the hearing.

When the vote came, Mangione’s amendment died by a vote of 48 to 90, mostly along party lines. Every Republican in the House voted for it, and all but seven Democrats voted against it.

ALSO READ | Beatings, verbal abuse by students land Baltimore area teachers in treatment for PTSD

“It’s absolutely shameful to think we couldn’t get a simple amendment done that just said just study whether or not behavioral issues are a concern to the bus drivers,” Mangione told Project Baltimore.

Mangione is pushing forward as videos of bus fights continue to surface online. He’s introduced emergency legislation to try to get a study commissioned on school bus violence. He says if it doesn’t pass before session ends in a few weeks, he he’ll try again next year.

“These things are together. You can tie them in. Safety and wages. Because we know from your reporting that safety is a concern straight from a bus driver in Baltimore County,” Mangione told Project Baltimore. “We cannot risk the safety of the students, the drivers, and the people on Maryland roads that are at risk if a fight breaks out on a bus and causes an accident.”