HOUSTON – The mother of a 6-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted by an 11-year-old on a school bus is calling for Aldine ISD officials to take action to prevent any other child from being harmed, as well as demanding a thorough and transparent investigation into circumstances that made these assaults possible in the first place.
At the Tuesday afternoon news conference, the mother made her position very clear.
“I want answers as to how the school district allowed this to happen with my son in their care,” she said.
The mother, Toya, and her attorneys are now calling for the resignation of officials in the transportation department, Lola Mae Carter Academy and Impact Leadership Academy at Wilson.
Toya said her son has been traumatized due to this incident, and now she is learning how to parent a hurt child. She said she feels helpless that she could not protect him and feels hopeless about the district’s lack of communication with her about how this happened.
“The truth of the matter is that you cannon allow harm to happen to a student and then go radio silent in following up with the family, said the mother’s attorney, S. Todd Yeary
Community activist Candice Matthews said they are now demanding the district to change its practices and policies to protect other families in the future, such as adding additional bus staff to help monitor children and to regularly check surveillance videos on buses.
Matthews demanded that the school’s principal and its bus supervisor both be fired and for the district to provide counseling for the child victim.
Aldine ISD spoke with KPRC 2 Investigates following the news conference to provide insight on what they have done in response.
″We have added additional bus monitors to additional routes, we retrained our staff, and they’ve reviewed our training on policies and procedures, student discipline, student safety... We’ve done that,” said Sheleah Reed, a spokesperson with Aldine ISD.
The district says they also have been reviewing bus videos more often for safety.
Additionally, they are looking at securing more resources for next year.
District leaders also said they could have better communicated these changes to the boy’s mother.
“Tuesday’s conversation is possibly a reminder that we can have a conversation about what has happened and check on her child. I do know that the school staff is in complete conversation with the student and the mother,” said Reed.
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