An Ohio school board is investigating an attack on a 10th-grade girl by a male student on a school bus after video of the assault went viral on social media.
The incident occurred Friday, Nov. 6, on a school bus taking students to the Mahoning Valley Community School, a public high school in Youngstown that serves students from grades 7 to 12.
The video, apparently filmed by another student on the bus, showed a boy repeatedly punching and kicking the girl. Other students could be heard laughing until the boy put her in a chokehold, prompting someone to say, “Chill.”
The girl’s stepfather told WKBN-TV that he found out how everything happened on Wednesday, five days after the brutal beating she suffered. He said she was taken to the hospital to check the severity of her injuries.
Both students are enrolled in the Boardman Local School District and attend classes at the Mahoning Valley Community School through a service agreement between the two institutions. Under that arrangement, the district provides bus transportation for MVCS students.
The district released a statement to FOX 8, a Cleveland TV affiliate, apologizing for “the delay in promptly notifying parents of the incident.”
“While bus staff notified Community School administrators, the severity of the incident was not adequately communicated,” the district added. “We can share that no student injuries were reported following the incident. We are reviewing both notification and transportation procedures to determine what happened and whether improvements are needed.”
The district also said that during the assault, the bus driver was unable to pull over right away but stopped shortly after the altercation began. The bus aide was put on leave “pending the outcome of the investigation.”
The girl’s stepfather told WKBN-TV that the aide should have acted as a second pair of eyes, not the phone camera that “can’t defend the students.”
“This is a complete failure to communicate, protect. I don’t even have the words — there are so many to use,” he added.
Jennifer Merritt, the superintendent of the Mahoning Valley Community School, also released a statement about the incident.
“MVCS is concerned by public assertions that Mahoning Valley Community School has ignored this incident or failed to respond appropriately,” she said. “Schools are bound by federal and state student confidentiality requirements that limit the public disclosure of individual student circumstances, disciplinary matters, and certain actions taken in response to incidents. The inability to publicly discuss these matters should not be mistaken for indifference or inaction.”
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