KENNEDALE (CBSDFW.COM) – A 10-year-old boy was beat up and left bleeding on the bus ride to school, and his family is still looking for an explanation, as well as an apology.
The boy was hit hard enough to make his nose bleed.
One of the problems, family members say the child didn’t get any help from the only adult present during the attack – the school bus driver. In fact, the boy said he ended up using a piece of notebook paper out of his backpack to control his bleeding nose.
While students were boarding the bus, for the ride to Kennedale ISD’s Delaney Elementary, 10-year-old Tristan Davis dropped his backpack. Other students had to wait for him, and Tristan told CBS 11, the students weren’t happy.
“Then this kid just ran up to me, and he started punching me right here in my face, right here and right here,” Tristan remembered, as he pointed to different spots on his face.
Tristan’s mom, Michelle Davis, couldn’t believe those things were happening just minutes after her son boarded the bus. “I had no idea,” she said. “I was waving goodbye and he was getting beat up. He was totally bleeding by the time he got down to the stop sign.”
Michelle Davis said the bus never stopped, and the bus driver never tried to stop the fight. Tristan’s older sister stepped in to help him. Even when the siblings got to school, and said they told a staff member what happened – no adult took any action.
“I went to the school the next morning and they said nobody reported it to them,” Michelle Davis said. According to the mother, Durham School Services hasn’t apologized, won’t let her see any video recorded on the bus, and won’t tell her what happened to the driver, who she said hasn’t been on the bus since the incident in October.
The principal at Delaney Elementary told CBS 11 it was a school bus issue and that her staff only learned about the alleged assault while checking on another reported incident, on the same bus.
It hasn’t been easy, Davis said, for her son to return to school. The bus is her only transportation option though, and one that until now, she always thought was safe. “Somebody take responsibility,” she said adamantly. “[Provide] more training for the bus drivers. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else’s child. Ever. It’s bad.”
Durham School services did not respond to several requests for information about what happened.
Michelle Davis, who called police after learning about what happened, said the other student involved has not been on the bus since the incident.
