OLD MONROE, Mo. – A five-minute school bus fight video shows a 13-year-old wailing on another 13-year-old while adults watched.
We counted about 30 blows to the head, during two rounds of fighting.
An adult school bus monitor, who’s in charge of student safety, does not appear to move toward the fighting students. At one point, you can hear the safety monitor ask other students to put away their phones.
“Please stop recording,” you can hear an adult say. The fighting continued with greater intensity.
It happened last week on a Winfield School District bus that pulled over on Highway C at Old Monroe.
“It’s just unacceptable,” the mother of the child being punched said. She asked not to be identified to protect her son, who has special needs.
“It’s a shame,” she said. “It’s sad. How can anyone sit back and just watch that happen?”
The fight ends at 4 minutes and 52 seconds into the video, with the school bus monitor walking back to check on the injured student as she puts her hand up to the other student.
Winfield School District Superintendent Rod Hamlett declined to talk on camera but shared concern over what the video shows. He added that there’s 25 minutes before the video begins, in which the school bus monitor was sitting between the two students who he said were constantly arguing.
Hamlett said the safety monitor then moved to the front of the bus during the fight, but said she was calling 911.
The superintendent said the district has spoken to the school bus monitor about better strategies and how she could potentially keep students safer in the future. He added that it is important to the district that they have two special school bus monitor trainers who are hired to help employees keep students safe.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office confirmed his deputies responded to the fight, which was over by the time they arrived. The sheriff said they took a report, which was sent to juvenile authorities.
The one child’s mother says the district originally suspended her son from the bus but changed course when she spoke up.
“I’m going to do my best and let my son know that I’m doing my best,” she said. “I thank the student for recording, because I wouldn’t have what I have if it wasn’t for that student. I thank that mother for reaching out to me.”
