TX: Plano ISD Mom Charges Bus Driver with Abuse

By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
mhaag@dallasnews.com
09:48 PM CST on Wednesday, December 3, 2008
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/plano/stories/120408dnmetplanobus.3966c5b.html

A Plano ISD parent says the school district retaliated against her son after she accused a school bus driver of spanking and choking him.

Last week, Jennifer Khonsari told school district officials that she planned to release school bus video footage to the media that showed a bus driver hitting her seventh-grade son, Kaleb. Later that day, officials at Kaleb's school suspended him for making an unrelated threat.

"I think they were doing it to get back at me," said Ms. Khonsari, adding that her son had never been suspended from school. "My son swears it was totally fabricated, and I believe him."

Plano ISD declined to comment about Ms. Khonsari's accusation.

"The district is involved in an ongoing investigation and will not comment on allegations related to this matter," district spokeswoman Nancy Long wrote in an e-mail. "The district will not discuss discipline matters related to a specific student."

Ms. Khonsari's accusation stems from two instances in early November in which a school bus driver grabbed Kaleb, spanked him and choked him on a Plano ISD bus, according to security camera footage filmed onboard the bus. Plano ISD declined to release the bus driver's name. But Ms. Khonsari identified the driver as Gail Atkins.

When reached by telephone, Ms. Atkins said, "I'm not interested in anything you have to ask or say." She then hung up.

In the video recorded on the bus security camera, Kaleb, 13, is seen leaning around his front-row seat and yelling to students in the back of bus.

"Quit yelling across my bus," the driver tells Kaleb.

Kaleb then stands up from his seat, laughs and continues to talk to people in the back. The driver turns around again and raises her voice.

"Quit it. Sit down," she says.

She then grabs Kaleb, pulls him over her lap and spanks him. He laughs, and she pushes him back to his seat.

A few seconds later, he stands up again. She walks toward his seat, grabs him and pushes him into his seat, according to the video.

Ms. Khonsari said that her son has ADHD and tends to be rambunctious. But that doesn't excuse the bus driver for hitting Kaleb, she said.

"Do I think he provoked her? Yeah," she said. "But that doesn't give her the right to touch a child."

Plano ISD placed the bus driver on paid leave Nov. 12, pending an investigation, Ms. Long said.

"Plano ISD takes all allegations very seriously," she said.

Ms. Khonsari said she hopes the bus driver doesn't return to work. She said the bus driver and Kaleb had clashed since the school year started. At one point, the driver forced him to sit in an assigned seat behind her, Ms. Khonsari said.

"I don't want her to come back," she said. "He doesn't want to see the bus driver anymore."