DETROIT – The mother of a seventh grader is demanding answers after a bus driver allegedly fought her 12-year-old daughter, seen in a video that has since gone viral.
The girls’ mother, through her attorney, said the school did not contact them after that incident occurred. She said she learned about it through her children.
They want to know everything about what happened, how the situation was handled, and how Trinity Transportation is screening its drivers.
“All those kids are traumatized by the behavior of one person that did not know how to cope,” said attorney Lillian Diallo.”
Diallo is working with the family of the 12-year-old seen in the viral video taken Monday (Oct. 24) by a fellow student onboard the bus.
“She started to hit me in my face, and she bit my face, and she would not stop,” Diallo said the seventh-grader told her.
The 12-year-old girl said on behalf of her attorney that the bus driver bit her in the face.
“She tried to choke me to death as my brother is outside and parents, adults, and children are trying to get on the bus,” Diallo said the seventh-grader told her.
According to the student, who attends a stem school at DPSCD, she was standing at the window talking to her brother, who attends a different school, when the substitute bus driver left her seat.
The 12-year-old girl said the bus driver cursed at her and told her to sit down.
“I asked her who she was talking to,” Diallo said the seventh-grader told her.
That question from the girl allegedly met with the response from the driver.
You can hear other children screaming as the incident took place.
There was someone on the bus who Diallo says could have done something but didn’t.
“The bus assistant did not help me, and he did not break up the fight or let anyone on the bus,” Diallo said the seventh-grader told her.
The incident is under police investigation by the Detroit Public School Community District Police Department.
Local 4 contacted Trinity Bus Services, but no contact was received.
Officials say that cameras were aboard the bus, but they were not functioning at the time.
