A 7-year-old boy riding a Marion County school bus to Marion Oaks Elementary was punched, shoved and choked on his way to class Tuesday, according to his mother, who says she didn't find out until he walked through the front door that afternoon. The boy told her another child had choked him before the bus driver intervened.
Video shared with News 6 reportedly shows an older boy climbing on top of the 7-year-old and choking him during the ride, according to WKMG / ClickOrlando. The bus driver stopped the attack before it escalated further, the outlet reported. Brittany Billups, the boy's mother, said she learned what happened only after her son came home from school that day — she said she received no communication from the school about the incident beforehand.
Mother Reacts to Attack
Billups said talking about the incident made her want to cry.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office is now conducting an active investigation, and the school district has confirmed to News 6 that it, too, is investigating the incident. Billups said the other boy involved was suspended days after the attack, though the length and terms of that suspension have not been detailed publicly. She said she will not put her son back on the bus until she knows whether the other student will still be allowed to ride.
A Recurring Problem on Marion County Buses
Marion County bus safety has drawn scrutiny, including reports of increased fights on buses.
A separate Liberty Middle School bus assault involved seven students, the outlet reported. Separately, FOX 35 Orlando detailed two serious Marion County bus incidents occurring within the same week — including a crash in which a school bus collided with a pickup truck, killing the pickup's driver, though the four students aboard, a bus aide and the bus driver were not injured. FOX 35 also reported on a separate case in which a bus was caught on dashcam running a red light with seven students aboard; the district said the driver was reprimanded under school board policy because it was a first offense.
An earlier and far more severe case still looms over the district's history: a 2012 attack reported by The Gainesville Sun described seven middle-school students jumping a 13-year-old girl, who was beaten unconscious within two minutes. That report noted district policy forbade bus drivers from touching students and that there was no safe place along the route to stop.
What Florida Law Requires
Florida's bullying statute, Florida Statutes § 1006.147, explicitly defines bullying and harassment to include conduct occurring on a school bus of a public K-12 educational institution. The law requires district policies to provide for a reasonable investigation of reported alleged bullying or harassment, including incidents that happen while a child is traveling to school on a bus or at a bus stop, along with a procedure for immediate notification to the parents of both the alleged victim and the alleged perpetrator.
Whether this incident will be formally classified as bullying or harassment under that statute has not been established. News 6 has said it plans to follow both the district's investigation and the status of the sheriff's office report as they develop.
