A severe beating dished out by three 15-year-old boys on a 13-year-old boy captured on school-bus surveillance footage has resulted in public outcry over perceived inaction by the school bus driver.
But Pinellas County Schools, the former employer of veteran driver John Moody who retired shortly after the July 9 incident, said he followed district policy.
District spokeswoman Melanie Parra told School Transportation News that policy dictates bus drivers are required to immediately contact dispatch via their two-way radios in the event of any physical altercation between students on board the bus. When and where it is safe to do so, drivers are also required to pull the vehicle to the side of the road to await responding police or district personnel.
In the grainy, blurry video, Moody, 64, can be heard demanding that 15-year-olds Joshua Reddin, Julian McKnight and Lloyd Khemradj stop beating the other boy, reportedly because the younger boy reporting to school officials that the other three had attempted to sell him marijuana earlier in the day. Moody is heard radioing dispatch for immediate assistance and also shouts out for other students to intervene and stop the beating. Apparently after pulling the bus over, Moody can then be seen in the video approaching the boys and repeating his calls that they stop and to “leave him alone; leave him alone.”
But he did not physically intervene, which has lead to a national controversy about his role in stopping the assault.
“Me jumping in the middle of that fight with three boys, it would have been more dangerous for other students on the bus for as myself,” Moody told CNN’s Piers Morgan. “There’s just no telling what might have happened.”
Pinellas County’s Parra said that the district driver handbook states that drivers may use physical confrontation to separate students involved in any fight. But that decision remains a judgement call if they deem it safe to do so.
“Each situation is going to be different,” added Parra. “What is required beyond (calling dispatch and pulling the bus over to a complete stop) is a judgement call to keep the other students on the bus safe.”
Training for how to manage student behavior on the bus is part of district protocol, which includes six hours of instruction for new drivers. Parra also said all returning drivers receive additional training on managing and responding to physical altercations on the bus as part of their eight hours of inservice.
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Moody, who retired shortly after the incident. has reportedly said he was scared of the three 15 year olds. He was hired by Pinnellas County in January of 1996. The local district attorney’s office reportedly declined to bring Moody up on child neglect charges, despite the local Gulport Police Chief Robert Vincent saying Moody should have and could have intervened.
The 13-year-old reportedly suffered two black eyes and a broken arm in the attack. As for the fate of Reddin, McKnight and Khemradj, Parra said all disciplinary information is confidential. But news reports have stated that the three boys were charged with aggravated battery. The also allegedy robbed the victim before escaping out the bus’ rear emergency door.
