School Bus Aide Fired After Fight With Student

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A school bus aide here has been fired after an investigation into an altercation between him and a student on Monday, part of which was caught on video.

Great Falls Public Schools, school bus company Big Sky Bus Lines, and the Great Falls Police Department completed an investigation into the incident. The school district and Big Sky Bus Lines released a joint statement, obtained by ABC FOX Montana, with a timeline of the events that led up to the fight.

The incident began at 3:17 p.m., with students hanging their legs, arms, hands, and heads outside the windows of their bus. A driver from another bus told them to stop, but they didn’t. The driver started to close the windows from the outside. Five minutes later, an aide from another bus boarded the students’ bus, verbal exchanges occurred, and the situation quickly escalated, according to the statement. At that point, the student who was arguing with the aide pushed him and the aide physically retaliated, the statement from the school district and company said. (Cell phone video of part of the incident was obtained by KTMF/KWYB and can be viewed at the end of the previously referenced ABC FOX Montana story.) Three minutes after that, administrators and teachers boarded the bus to take control of the situation.

The aide is no longer employed by Big Sky Bus Lines, according to the statement, which added that “Big Sky Bus Lines expects their staff members to diffuse conflict, but this did not occur.”