A school bus aide in Chicago is under investigation after she was busted by a school bus camera abusing a 6-year-old non-verbal autistic girl, hitting her twice in the face as she sat in her bus seat.
So far, no charges have been filed against the bus aide.
The blatant act of abuse was discovered by school administrators in the New Lenox School District 122 after they suspected something might be wrong when they observed the bus aide carrying 6-year-old Kayla Rushing off the bus.
School administrators reviewed the video then forwarded footage of the abuse to the school superintendent Peggy Marville, who took the initiative to share the video with the parents, since Kayla is non-verbal and couldn’t tell her them what happened on her bus ride to Cherry Hill Elementary school in New Lenox last week.
“I think about it. It just makes me mad. She shouldn’t have to go through that,” Kayla’s father Nick Rushing said in an interview with NBC.
“She can’t come back and say, dad, this lady hit me…not just once, but twice.”
Rushing said even though the video made him angry, he applauded the school district for coming forward with footage of the incident.
“To have somebody hit my child like that, it makes me mad. She’s not verbal,” Rushing said.
“Very grateful to the school for, you know . . . doing what they did. They could easily have swept it under the rug. You know, it’s not very hard with an autistic child who’s non-verbal.”
Kayla’s mother Madeline Norley said she knew something was wrong before the school even called, but she still can’t believe it happened.
“It made sense because when she got of the bus she was all clingy, ‘mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy.'”
“It’s just mind blowing to watch the tape,” she said. I break down. I can’t even talk about it.”
Officials for the school district said they’ve asked the bus aide, who works for an outside contractor, to be removed from serving their district.
“Student safety is our first priority and we expect any service the district contracts with to fully comply with this priority,” they said in a statement regarding the incident.
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