Man Jumps On School Bus, Beats 11-Year-Old Special Needs Student
NEW YORK (CBS 2) -- It's a place where children are supposed to be safe: a school bus.
But it's the very place where a child was beaten by a stranger. His mother is furious that no one tried to stop it from happening.
The little boy, sporting a serious black eye, described his ordeal to CBS 2's Kathryn Brown.
"I was too scared to scream for help," 11-year-old Jameel Grant said.
Grant was still recovering Thursday -- emotionally and physically -- from being attacked while riding his school bus last Friday morning.
"He just kept on punching me. He punched me in the face, all over my face," Grant said. "My lip was swollen. My upper lip was big like this and I had a bump. It was a big bump."
The bus caters to children with special needs.
Jameel said another student leaned out the window and began cursing at a man walking on the sidewalk. But instead of ignoring the student the man jerked open the back emergency door, stormed onto the bus and began screaming and beating Jameel with his fists.
"I was blocking myself and I turned around to the window," he said.
The man jumped off moments later and the bus driver continued on to P.S. 186.
Jameel's mom, Brunila Canales, said she's furious that the bus driver and bus matron both witnessed the beating -- and did nothing to stop it.
"They had that minute to intervene, push the man, do something, you understand? Stop the man from beating on my son the way he was. They did nothing," Canales said.
"They were scared because the matron said the man was putting his hand in his pocket and she didn't know what he was taking out."
She's now demanding that school buses have more safeguards to prevent attacks like the one that happened to her son, including locks on the doors and surveillance cameras inside.
"There should be someone that would intervene when something like this happens. It wasn't only my son on the bus!" Canales said.
"And then once I got to the school I got to see my son and all I could do was bend down and hug him because his face was so swollen from all the hits he was getting."
For now, the police are hunting for the suspect. Jameel said as long as his attacker is at large he will remain too afraid to get back on the bus.
"Because I don't want him to come on the back of the bus again," the little boy said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education told Brown they learned about the incident last week and instructed the bus company involved to call police -- who are now handling the investigation.
Jameel's mother said she has filed a formal complaint against the bus company.
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