Viral Video of 10th-Grade Girl Beaten on Ohio School Bus: District Apologizes for Delayed Notice, Bus Aide Placed on Leave
A 10th-grade girl was beaten by a male student on a school bus taking students to Mahoning Valley Community School in Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio, on Friday, November 6, in an attack filmed by another student on the bus and shared on social media, where it went viral. According to the New York Post, the Boardman Local School District has opened an investigation, and the bus aide who was on board has been placed on leave pending the outcome.
The video showed the boy repeatedly punching and kicking the girl while other students could be heard laughing, until he put her in a chokehold and someone said, "Chill." Both students are enrolled in the Boardman Local School District and attend classes at Mahoning Valley Community School, a public high school serving grades 7 through 12, under a service agreement between the two institutions, with the district providing bus transportation. The reports did not name either student.
The girl's stepfather told WKBN-TV that he did not learn the full extent of what happened until Wednesday, November 11, five days after the incident, and that she was taken to a hospital to check the severity of her injuries. He called it a complete failure to communicate and protect, and said the aide should have acted as a second pair of eyes, not as a phone camera that cannot defend the students.
In a statement to FOX 8, the Boardman Local School District apologized for "the delay in promptly notifying parents of the incident," and said that while bus staff notified Community School administrators, the severity of the incident was not adequately communicated. The district also said no student injuries were reported following the incident, and that it is reviewing both notification and transportation procedures to determine what happened and whether improvements are needed. It said the driver was unable to pull over right away during the assault but stopped shortly after the altercation began.
Jennifer Merritt, the superintendent of Mahoning Valley Community School, also released a statement. She said the school is concerned by public assertions that it has ignored the incident or failed to respond appropriately, and that federal and state student confidentiality requirements limit what schools can publicly disclose about individual student circumstances, disciplinary matters and actions taken in response, adding that an inability to discuss those matters publicly should not be mistaken for indifference or inaction. The investigation was still under way when the reports were published, and neither institution had announced any disciplinary outcome for the students involved.
Source: New York Post
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 资料图：黄色校车，Elise240SX摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons，已裁为1600×900，彩色；非涉事校车、非事发现场画面。/ File photo: a yellow school bus (photo by Elise240SX, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons), cropped to 1600x900; not the bus involved and not a photo of the incident scene.
