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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
 Posted - 02/10/2008 : 7:15:56 PM
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Video shows Lake school-bus monitor, later fired, holding boy down
Feb 10 2008
Orlando Sentinel Sun
Video shows Lake school-bus monitor, later fired, holding boy down
Helen Eckinger, Staff Writter
Feb 10 2008
Orlando Sentinel
A Lake County school-bus monitor was fired last month after she pushed herself up against a 6-year-old autistic boy and then held the child down on a bus returning from Princeton House, a school for autistic children in Orlando, according to school officials and a Lake County Sheriff's Office report.
The Lake County School Board terminated Carmen McDonald, 75, on Jan.28 after determining that she had failed to perform satisfactorily during a routine probationary period. But Deke DeLoach, Lake schools' chief human-resources officer, said McDonald would have been fired in any case because of her behavior on the bus during the Jan.17 incident involving the autistic child.
McDonald could not be reached for comment Friday.
McDonald was monitoring a bus with six students on Jan.17 when one of them — an autistic 6-year-old boy — climbed out of a harness designed to keep him in his seat belt, according to a Sheriff's Office incident report.
Video footage from the bus shows McDonald pushing the student against the wall of the vehicle with her body and the student sliding down behind a seat and out of the camera's range, according to the report.
"It is believed the suspect is holding the juvenile victim down in some way," according to the report.
The student is heard screaming "No, no," and crying for his mother on the video, according to the report.
Video part of investigation
School officials denied repeated requests by the Orlando Sentinel for a copy of the tape, citing privacy laws. The Sheriff's Office would not release the tape, citing an ongoing investigation.
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Lake school-bus monitor fired for holding boy down
