A former Lake Orion Community Schools bus aide has been sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to child abuse in connection with a May 2025 incident caught on school bus video, and now the boy's family has filed a lawsuit accusing the district of ignoring his disability accommodations. William Thomas Pearson Jr. was sentenced in Oakland County Circuit Court last Wednesday to 18 months of probation for third-degree child abuse, and the following day the family filed a civil complaint naming both Pearson and the school district as defendants.
The criminal case and the civil filing were detailed by the Detroit Metro Times, which reports that attorney Michael D. Weaver of Detroit-based Flood Law PLLC filed the lawsuit in Oakland County Circuit Court. According to the Detroit News, the alleged abuse of the special-needs child was captured on the bus's video system, footage that became central to both the criminal case and the family's civil claims.
What the Video Allegedly Shows
On-bus footage referenced in court documents shows Pearson screaming at the 12-year-old student before grabbing the child's arm and wrenching it backward over a bus seat, the Metro Times reported. Pearson's no-contest plea resulted in a conviction without a formal admission of civil liability, leaving the family's separate lawsuit to pursue financial damages and district accountability.
The civil complaint states that the student has documented diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, adjustment disorder with anxiety, and ADHD. His Individualized Education Program, or IEP, documented that his repetitive movements served a self-regulatory purpose, according to the same report.
Lawsuit Targets District Training and Oversight
The lawsuit alleges that Lake Orion Community Schools violated the Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act by failing to train bus staff on special-education needs, failing to share the student's IEP with transportation personnel, and failing to establish disability-specific transport protocols. Those failures, the family argues, left an aide without the knowledge or training needed to respond appropriately to a student whose behaviors were tied to a documented disability.
Federal court records show a related civil rights personal injury case, Weishaar v. Melissa et al., naming Pearson and the district, was docketed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in July, according to Justia Dockets. The federal filing indicates the litigation surrounding the district's handling of the incident extends beyond Oakland County Circuit Court.
Penalties and District Spending on Security
Under Michigan Penal Code MCL 750.136b, third-degree child abuse is a felony carrying a statutory maximum of up to two years in state prison for a first offense, though judges retain discretion to impose probation instead of incarceration based on sentencing guidelines and plea agreements. Michigan law also permits school bus camera footage to be used as admissible court evidence and requires districts to turn over surveillance recordings to law enforcement upon request, as Hoodline reported on a separate bus video case in March.
Notably, the Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education authorized up to $440,570.57 in August 2025 to purchase and install updated video surveillance equipment and security access controls across district facilities, according to the Lake Orion Review. That spending predates the civil suit and was not tied specifically to the bus aide case in available records.
A Statewide Staffing Strain
The case surfaces amid broader strain on Michigan's education workforce. A statewide survey commissioned by the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative found that 56% of Michigan teachers were considering leaving the profession within five years, according to Chalkbeat. High turnover among support and transportation staff can widen training gaps for students with specialized needs, a dynamic the lawsuit's allegations against Lake Orion Community Schools directly reflect.
Similar cases have surfaced elsewhere in the country. Hoodline previously covered a Florida bus aide abuse case involving a nonverbal special-needs student, and an earlier Illinois case in which a former Peoria School District aide was charged with felony child abuse after striking an autistic student on camera. It remains unresolved whether Lake Orion Community Schools will issue a formal response to the civil and federal filings or change its training policies for transportation staff working with special-education students.
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