Video shows Dallas bus driver choking student
November 12th, 2008By Shelly Slater on WFAA-TV Dallas/Fort Worth:
In an incident that went unreported for months, a Dallas school district camera captured on videotape footage of an enraged bus driver choking a student who had been misbehaving.
Correspondent Shelly Slater said the child’s family did not learn of the incident until the station obtained the videotape and showed it to them. The student was described as having intellectual disabilities and bipolar disorder.
The video (available on the station’s website) shows the student moving around, shouting obscenities and throwing a can in the direction of the driver. The driver, identified as Janet Pitts, got up and choked the boy, yelling, “You want me to beat you [expletive]? You don’t do that no more. You hear me? Don’t do that no more. Sit down, do you understand?”
On the day in question, Pitts was driving without the monitor who ordinarily helped keep order on the bus.
Dale Kiser, with the National Education Association, says it isn’t the driver’s fault. Instead, he blames the system.
“It’s been stated, documented [and] everything else that there should always be a monitor on this particular student on that bus,” he said.
Pitts has since been terminated, reinstated, and has resigned.
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November 13th, 2008 at 1:40 am
I just viewed this and it made me sick to my stomach. I have a 34-yr-old cousin who is bipolar. Having someone in the family who is mentally ill can be frustrating at times, but because we understand the disease, we learn to have patience and ignore the erratic behavior. But for an adult to take it upon herself to choke a child … I am disgusted. Even more disgusted with Deanne Hullender from the school district. What a callous, impersonal human being. I wonder if she has children and wonder how she would feel if someone began to choke her child, especially someone who is mentally challenged.. It is people like her working in positions where the choices they make will affect a child one way or another that scares me. They literally turn the other cheek and act so “nonchalant” about things. Thank the Lord this child did not die…..Shame on the school district and the city for not pressing charges…