A 15-year-old middle school student was arrested Thursday after he allegedly punched a school bus driver, knocking her unconscious while the bus was in motion on Linden Street near North Foster Drive, Baton Rouge police said.
Before the bus ran off the road, another student stepped up, hit the brakes and called 911, possibly preventing the incident from turning into a disaster, said Keith Bromery, an East Baton Rouge Parish School System spokesman.
“You had one youngster who did what he needed to correct the situation, or at least mitigate it,” Bromery said.
All of the students on the bus were from Christa McAuliffe Superintendent’s Academy, a middle school for students who are two or more years behind in their academic studies. Officials with the school system’s transportation department went by the school Friday morning to thank the student who took control of the bus after the driver was knocked out, Bromery said.
There were about eight students on the bus at the time of the beating, Bromery said, and none of them were injured during the incident. All of the students were taken home once the on-scene investigation was complete, Bromery said.
The seventh grade student who allegedly punched the bus driver was recommended for expulsion following the incident, Bromery said. In the meantime, he’s suspended from school.
McKneely, the police spokesman, said the incident happened at about 3 p.m. in the 5100 block of Linden Street.
“The kid was unruly and the driver was attempting to control the situation,” McKneely said. “He took her by surprise and began punching her.”
McKneely said the teenager fled the scene after punching the bus driver.
A few hours later, the boy’s mother brought her son to a police district on Plank Road. He was later booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Juvenile Detention Center on counts of battery of a bus driver, second-degree battery and aggravated obstruction of a roadway, McKneely said.
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