Im sharing this for a friend. Please feel free to share as well. Hello all here’s what happened to our son Christian. He’s Autistic and attends a life skills class outside of our school district. Attridge buses him and a few other kids his age to both Frontenac and Ascension public schools in Burlington. Last Friday on the way to school Christian put the window down at his seat. Not that it matters but let’s set the mood… It was a very mild day not a blizzard or raining or snowing and he was bundled up for winter and hot. While in motion, the bus driver repeatedly yelled at him to put the window back up of which Christian did not respond. His Autism causes him to look like he doesn’t hear your command and the louder or angier you become the more confused, upset and non responsive he gets. According to the other students, the bus driver became very angry and stopped the bus and aggressively charged down the aisle yelling at him to put the window up. We all know what school bus seats are like, she pushed herself onto him and into his seat (with Christian against the side wall and window) and raised the window at which time Christian reached up to put it back down, this probably looked like struggling back and forth, which is when she started to “strike” at his hands (Strike is the work the Attridge supervisor and the VP used when describing what happened to me over the phone). During this whole time she was at extreme close quarters, yelling, swearing over several minutes, calling him an idiot and a f’ing retard. I can only image how the exchange ended because I have never seen this kind of behavior and do not know how Christian would have responded, my guess is that he got is hands hurt and he backed off and stopped. One of the other students told their parents at home after school that day, who called Attridge and called Ascension school. Thank –you to the brave young man for coming forward and thank-you to the parents who I assume were as outraged as me and my husband. Moving along, we were informed on Wednesday by our vice principal at Frontenac school that there was an incident and she described it as above. She informed me that Childrens Aid had been contacted and would be getting in touch with me. I was shocked and called the Police as soon as I got off the phone. The Halton Police reception organized an officer to go to the school and open a case. He was to go at 3pm. I got home at about 3:15 and a few minutes later the CAS worker was at my home. While we were talking, (nice lady) the officer called and gave me an account of the incident that he got from the same vice principal. It was much more watered down and he basically explained that the driver was operating under bus safety rules, there would be no charges or criminal report. Thankfully the CAS worker heard him and informed the officer that this was not the story she was told. So at this point, I have a story that matches CAS, cops don’t. She told me she was meeting with the student witness and will call me after work Thursday (today). There’s nothing else we can do. I then called Attridge, while CAS was there and surprisingly the story from the supervisor matched as well. They said the driver is suspended pending investigation and they assured me that she will not be back on my route when this is over. After that call, the bus came to drop Christian off and I ran out. The bus driver put his window down (lol) and was very friendly. I asked how the ride was and if he ever had issues with Christian. He looked confused and said no why? And then these little munchkins all came running from the back and said I know why! and all very animated they told me what had happened on Friday. I think there were around 6 kids who said exactly what I had already been told. So we all have the same account, the kids, CAS, the original VP’s version, except for the police. Side note, some people get weird around uniforms, doctors, cops whatever some kind of authority issue I don’t know. I was very upset at this discrepancy and I called the vice principal this morning and explained to her the repercussions of her actions. By trying to convey to the Police that she has authority too and everything’s under control, this person just got away with assaulting my son. She denied watering the story and was apologetic. As it stands now CAS is helping as best they can by getting more witness statements after seeing the kids on the bus I went back in and told her there isn’t one but several kids that will tell her what happened and that’s about all I can do for now. I plan to revisit the issue with Police once we have more evidence. Thank-you all for your support, if you are to call anyone or share my story which I hope you do, please be accurate, and note that all parties involved have been helpful to the best of their abilities. Fault is with the actions of the driver, the rest is just getting through the bureaucracy of it all. Thanks again and we’ll keep smiling
Posted on: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 01:13:23 +0000
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