Investigators say surveillance video shows a school bus aide repeatedly physically abusing a 10-year-old student with disabilities while the bus driver watched and, at times, laughed.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests on Jan. 30, following a child abuse investigation that began in mid-November, after a witness reported seeing a school bus aide strike the boy while parked at Caminiti Exceptional School.
According to investigators, video capture Juanita Wright, 79, a school bus monitor for Hillsborough County Public Schools, striking the minimally verbal student diagnosed with autism and ADHD on 14 separate days between Oct. 2 and Nov. 14, Authorities say the footage shows Wright hitting the boy in the head and on his back, pulling him by the hair, and wresting his backpack away as he remained seated.
Wright was charged with 14 counts of child abuse. The bus driver, Tonya Rice-Constant, 62, is charged with failure to report child abuse. Prosecutors allege she saw the abuse, did not intervene, and at least once appeared to smile or laugh while watching the incidents in her rear-view mirror.
Sheriff Chad Chronister condemned the conduct as “a level of cruelty that is deeply disturbing,” calling it “an inexcusable betrayal of trust” when adults entrusted with a child’s welfare cause harm and fail to act. Deputies reviewed internal school bus video and identified multiple incidents before the report was made.
The investigation remains active to determine if additional victims exist.
“A defenseless child was physically abused by someone entrusted with their care, while another adult failed to intervene and instead laughed,” Chronister said. “It is an inexcusable betrayal of trust and a profound lack of humanity.”
In a statement shared by local media, the district said Wright was hired in 2012, removed from duty in November after the allegations surfaced, and later fired. Rice-Constant retired from the district in November, when the investigation into the alleged child abuse began. Both cases will proceed through the court system as authorities continue to investigate.
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