Boys Slapped With Felonies in Bus Fight ANYONE seen and heard this? I'm in the dark. -Sounds like the kids need some *ss Beat . .. so does the driver if he initiated it. Rocket River Boys Slapped With Felonies in Bus Fight PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - The mother of two boys whose fight with a substitute school bus driver was captured on videotape has questioned why the boys are charged with a felony while the driver faces a less serious charge. Sherri Shaw said Monday on NBC's "Today" that she's not satisfied with the punishment facing driver Albert Taylor. He has been charged with misdemeanor battery and could spend a year in jail if convicted. Mark Ernest Dickinson, 15, and his stepbrother, Corey Gene Hendershot, 13, were arrested last week and charged with assault on a school official, a felony punishable by up to five years in a juvenile justice facility, said Russell Kirshy, the family's attorney. A bus security camera videotape of the fight has been played extensively on national television. According to Charlotte County sheriff's reports, the fight happened Tuesday when Taylor tried to put a seat belt on Hendershot, who refused to wear it. He then told Hendershot to sit up front, but the boy refused. When Taylor walked to the back of the bus, Dickinson got in his way and cursed at him. Taylor then slapped Dickinson and grabbed his throat, the video shows. Dickinson is seen pushing and punching the 66-year-old bus driver. The boys' father, David Shaw, said the older teen felt he was protecting his younger brother. The father acknowledged on "Today" that the boys could have been calmer, but said the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Taylor has been suspended without pay. A number listed for an Albert Taylor in the area was disconnected and he could not be reached for comment Monday. Florida began requiring all new school buses to have seat belts in 1999, but wearing them is not a requirement.
I saw the video and from that it seems a miscarriage of justice that they're charging with felony assault while the driver is only charged with misdemeanor assault. The guy is like twice the size of those kids and he was choking and beating them pretty hard. Those kids aren't innocent and deserve going to Juvie but that driver's response wasn't appropiate to the threat.
kids today are a-holes....i guess today's parents suck...sorry for the lack of a better explanation...though i'm 23 and in my time kids did not act like how they do today...the 'respect' for elders is gone...
[video] Don't poke an angry bus driver with a stick School bus driver lays the smackdown on some punk ass kids. LINK
WTF, those are some horrible kids but to charge the 13 and 15 year old kids with felonies while the bus driver, who threw the first punch, gets a misdameanor? WTF is wrong with this picture?
They all deserve to be punished. I don't think any of them are going to do hard time though. I saw the video, but my computer is too slow so it's real choppy. I could make out the audio though, and the end was classic. After the scuffle, one of the boys was saying to the busdriver "you're going to jail you know that", kind of smart alecky way. Sigh, that bus driver was stupid, but damn 90% of the kids today need a good old fashioned ass-whoopin from their parents. And 90% of the parents today need not have kids.
Both the bus driver and those kids should be in jail. As a professional, the bus driver should known better than that. But those kids should be in jial for a day or two for being such little punk ass. The judge probably should punish those kids' parents as well.
Everyone involved needs to be punished in some form or fashion, but felonies? Not sure about that, but it was a bad situation for all involved...I suspect there will be a lot of TV coverage on this as this plays out...
and the parents are reinforcing this behaviour by defending the kids. If they would have sat down and shut up and listened to the driver nothing would have happen. The guy overreacted and shouldn't be driving a shcol bus any more but those kids need a good ass whoopin. If I would have done that when I was kid --- I would have gotten a good ass whoopin when I got home and my parents would have made me apologize to the bus driver. No doubt.
The reason is that striking a school official is an automatic felony or atleast that is how they explained it on CNN. They said that only the state's attorney general could change the charge.
We should get rid of school buses all together. We wouldn't have all of these fat kids anymore, plus we would save A LOT of tax payer money. Think of all the gas these things use everyday.
What if it's in defense? And those kids are underage, I swear things are getting worse and worse these days. Like I said, if a man, twice my size attacked me, I would try like hell to break free and if he comes at me again, some sort of fighting response would trigger and I would inavertently swing a punch. I just don't like the message of if a kid act bad, an adult can beat him, and if the kid fight back, he gets a freaking felony charge that'll ruin his life.
And in doing so, you prevent a lot of kids whose family only have one car, parents working odd hours, and just can't get to school because no ride situation from going to school. If parts of this country has better public transit system, then I say go for it, but that's just not the case.
Seems to me the Driver started it when he grabed the kid by the neck. All he had to do was ignore the disturbing kids and report them when he got back to the school. I don't know exactly why the one kid threw a punch but if I saw my sibling getting attacked I would defend them as well. Criminal charges against the kids seems pretty harsh considering the circumstances, but they do deserve some disapline from the school. The driver should be fired and brought up on charges. He should have know better.
No way, those kids provoked him. He had to stop the bus about 3 times because he couldn't safely operate the bus while those kids created a disturbance. Yeah, he blew up and should be punished for that, but those kids definitely instigated it by teasing the bus driver to a point where he couldn't safely perform his responsibilities.
OK That part wasn't in the reports that I read so you're right on that point. However, he had options i.e. pulling over and calling the police or the school for assistance. No way should he have ever physically grabbed that kid. It is not his job to disapline.
