A St. Louis middle school student was bullied on a school bus while the bus driver reportedly did not intervene, reports KSDK.com.
On Tuesday afternoon, 11-year-old Reginald Keeton, who is African-American, came home from school upset and told his mother he had been hit and verbally attacked on the school bus ride home. KMOV.com reported that he said two white students hit him, yelled at him, threw his snacks around, grabbed the hood of his jacket and said it looked like a KKK hood. The school bus driver did not stop the bus or come back to deal with the situation, he said.
The boy’s mother requested to view the video from the bus and the school district showed it to her the next day. She told KSDK.com it showed her son protecting himself and the students continuing to hit him.
The district is still investigating the incident as bullying, as well as whether the bus driver acted appropriately in the situation.
Barry Nelson, assistant superintendent of human resources for the school district, confirmed that the accused students did “some inappropriate things — they were poking this kid, touching him inappropriately, and they also made a comment regarding his hoodie” and said the behavior was “completely inappropriate and not ok.”
Because of the incident, Keeton is not riding the bus to and from school. His mother said that the two attackers were banned from the bus, but that she wants a harsher punishment.
“We need to address the needs of the victims and help them feel supported as well as address the two kids that were involved in this situation—work with them, work with their parents and hopefully help them make better choices in the future,” Nelson said.
