CONROE, Texas – A former Conroe ISD bus aide who was caught on video attacking a 17-year-old student on a bus last week has been arrested, sources told KPRC 2.
Sources said Donald Tisdel has been charged with assault with bodily injury, a class A misdemeanor. He is scheduled for a hearing at the Montgomery County Jail on Friday.
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Tisdel was the employee caught on cell phone video attacking a student on a Conroe ISD bus last Thursday. The video showed him striking the student with an object.
Conroe ISD said they were made aware of the incident on Thursday. While they did not identify the employee as Tisdel, they said the employee was no longer with the district following the incident.
The district released the following statement last Thursday:
“Yesterday afternoon, we were made aware of an incident in which an employee in our Transportation Department physically attacked a student on a bus. We are disturbed by this unacceptable behavior which is not representative of our hundreds of hard-working transportation staff. The individual is no longer employed by the District, and the Conroe ISD Police Department is completing their investigation with the expectation of pursuing criminal charges.”
A mugshot of Tisdel was not immediately available.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by KPRC 2, a Conroe ISD police officer responded after receiving calls about the incident.
The warrant said Tisdel told the officer “He pushed me, put his hands on me, and we started fighting.”
The officer viewed surveillance video of the incident. It showed Tisdel and the student having a verbal argument with each other. The student was seated at the rear of the bus.
The warrant said during the argument, the surveillance video showed Tisdel saying to the student “Put your hands on me, that’s what I want.”
In response, the student quickly moves from the rear of the bus to Tisdel at the front. The student leans into Tisdel towards the door of the bus, making contact with Tisdel’s chest. Video then shows Tidel using the plastic bottle in his right hand to strike the student on his head and/or shoulder.
The warrant said the video shows the student fall to the ground and Tisdel appears to strike him four times with the object while the student is in a protective position on the ground with his hands up to stop the strikes.
Tisdel can then be heard repeating “don’t put your hands on me” after the strikes. Tisdel then shoves the student twice with his empty left hand as the student climbs into a nearby seat.
The warrant said, while watching the video, the officer saw that the student did not appear to push or strike Tisdel at any time during the incident. The student then stood and returned to the rear of the bus and the verbal argument continued between the two.
The officer said he saw visible injury to the student, who was bleeding from a laceration to his face. The officer said this was consistent with the strikes he saw in the video.
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