The bus driver could have completely avoided the entire situation, but instead she provoked the whole thing. I just think it's funny that at the end of the video, she implies that having everything on tape will help her, when in reality, it's doing just the opposite.
Originally posted by RyanBeing the heartless bastard I am, I laughed through most of that video.
Seriously, unlike the "Don't taze me, bro!" video, this more left me bemused rather than in shock. I mean, it's a ridiculous fight on a school bus. Both parties are just using their hands and I'm sure they could take care of themselves.
I kinda snickered when the bus driver cried into the radio about not getting the help she asked for and finding out they were stuck in traffic. It all sort of mirrors how inane the situation was.
Yeah, I was thinking if she wants her off the bus anyway and the girl is insisting to be let off then why not just open the door and let her go?
The argument that a lot of people are making, and I understand what they're talking about, is that the bus driver can only let students off at a designated stop and not just anywhere where the bus driver could be held liable if something happens to them.
Which leads me to ask why the hell she just stops the bus (because supposedly the girl was tormenting the guy in front of her, you know, like half the kids on school buses do to each other) at some random place to tell the girl off. If she had just continued driving or perhaps issued a warning while the bus was in motion, it wouldn't have gotten this ridiculous.
Yeah, I think that the bus driver is to blame, certainly for starting the fight, but also for insisting that she not get off the bus. Seriously, it actually isn't legal for her to force the girl to stay on the bus through use of force.
Also, I have to say that that guy who got between the four of them when they were fighting was jsut a bit brave. He didn't look big, and not extremely strong, but he still maanged to seperatoe them all.
Originally posted by Phoenix 5 NewsVideo Catches Bus Driver Fighting With Student
PHOENIX -- Video released Thursday from a camera mounted inside a Higley Unified School District bus shows the bus driver engaging in a physical confrontation with a teenage girl.
The incident happened last Friday, when 54-year-old Kim Sullivan was driving students home from Williams Field High School in Gilbert.
The video shows Sullivan stopping the bus after repeatedly warning 15-year-old Samantha Taylor to sit back in her seat and stop touching the boy in front of her.
After stopping the bus, Sullivan walked back toward Taylor's seat and asked her why she was on the bus, then told her to find another way to get to and from school.
Taylor tried to exit the bus; Sullivan tried to push her back into her seat.
Taylor repeatedly yelled at Sullivan to "stop touching me" and called her mother on her cell phone.
Sullivan said she was calling police.
The altercation escalated when Taylor handed Sullivan her phone to speak with her mother, and Sullivan tossed the phone aside.
Taylor then began screaming at Sullivan, "You punched me!" though the alleged blow was not visible on the video.
Another student trying to exit the bus, 14-year-old Cassandra Schlosser, told her mother on her cell phone that the bus driver was "like about to get in a fistfight with Sammy."
About a minute later, the confrontation turned into a full-blown physical fight when Taylor moved forward to grab her phone and Sullivan tried to push her back.
The laughs and jeers of the other students on the bus turned to gasps of shock that faded to silence as Taylor and Sullivan continued to grapple with each other. Though the two moved forward and out of range of the camera's lens, the sound of a blow being struck is clearly heard on the video.
The two moved back into view of the camera with Sullivan pulling Taylor's hair. At the same moment, Sullivan's 16-year-old daughter came running forward, screaming at Taylor to get off her mother. She grabbed two handfuls of Taylor's hair and tried to pull the girl off Sullivan.
She then told Sullivan to get off of Taylor, but continued to pull Taylor's hair in her attempts to wrestle Taylor away from her mother.
Schlosser then joined the melee, yelling at the Sullivans to get off of Taylor, a few seconds before a male student came forward and knocked Sullivan's daughter away from Taylor.
The fight continued for about another minute, ending when a tearful Taylor joined the rest of the students as they exited the bus through an emergency exit door on the side of the vehicle.
Sullivan, also in tears, then radioed her dispatcher, asking, "Where is my help that I asked for?"
A school district official told the East Valley Tribune that a school supervisor was on the way to the bus but was stuck in traffic. The official said one student called police while the incident unfolded, but the students had left the bus by the time officers arrived.
When a female student approached Sullivan after the brawl to ask if she was OK, Sullivan responded, "Yes? it's all on the tape."
Gilbert police are conducting a criminal investigation of the incident and said they would request charges against Sullivan when the investigation was complete.
The school district is also conducting an administrative investigation in conjunction with police.
On Wednesday, the district sent a letter home to parents informing them of the incident, the Tribune reported.
Taylor, Schlosser and Sullivan's daughter were suspended, and Sullivan was placed on paid leave, according to the Tribune.
Sullivan has worked as a bus driver for the district since last June and has driven buses elsewhere before, the Tribune reported. The Higley school district is not aware of any complaints against the driver, a district official told the newspaper.
CBS 5 viewer e-mails showed an overwhelming support for Sullivan, with several expressing the sentiment that "this is the reason there are driver shortages."
To be honest, while the girl was acting like a spoiled brat, I can't help but side with her. When she leaned in to get her phone, the bus driver initiated the physical part of all of this.
What's more, she should have kept driving rather than getting up and yelling at the girl to find another way to and from school. What did that accomplish?
