Shocking video footage shows the moment a woman repeatedly hit a nonverbal student with autism on a bus which led to Englewood Police arresting her.
Kiarra Jones, a bus aide with Littleton Public Schools, was taken into custody April 4 and has bonded out of the Arapahoe County Detention Center. In the video shared by multiple news outlets, Jones was sitting next to a 10-year-old boy and appears to strike him in the stomach with her elbow and then striking him in the face with her fist. according to an affidavit obtained by 9NEWS, an Englewood police detective looked into the situation further and found out that this isn’t the first time an incident like this has occurred on the bus. He says he saw footage of more abuse on two different days.
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CBS News spoke to the parents who tearfully held a press conference and expressed their frustration with the situation. “It was a heavy decision to make to uncover it, but we cannot bring attention to this if we don’t look at it,” said the boys mother, Jess. “It’s ugly to look at, but it’s important to see how confused and afraid he was in that video. It just speaks to his vulnerability, and it speaks to the terror he had to endure while on that bus.”
“How could someone that I trusted, someone that I was so friendly with do this to my little boy?” Jess said tearfully. “The torture and torment of my sweet boy could’ve been stopped.”
Attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai, who represents at least two families whose children ride the bus, sent the video to the news outlet on Tuesday.
“The abuses of special needs children continues to occur because school districts treat this community as a burden rather than a blessing,” Mohamedbhai said. “School districts routinely fail to train and support those who work with special needs student populations.”
Littleton Public Schools released a communication to families on Tuesday afternoon saying Jones was hired in August 2023 after passing a background check and was fired on March 19, the day after the incident. The school district said she had “very limited access” to students during her employment.
“This kind of behavior cannot be and is not tolerated,” the communication says. “As parents, you trust us with the well-being of your children and you should never have to worry about them being harmed when they are in our care.”
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