A white Georgia college bus driver has been charged after a cellphone video emerged of him pushing two black college students.
James O’Neil, a bus driver for the Morgan Nation Constitution Faculty System, was arrested Friday on two counts of straightforward battery over the alleged college bus confrontation, Morgan County Citizen reported.
Footage captured of the incident on Sept. 9 confirmed O’Neil telling a younger boy and his sister to go to the again of the bus. When the youngsters refuse to conform, he shoves them.
The driving force was fired from the college district after the footage went viral on-line, the outlet reported.
The youngsters’s mom, Nequania Carter, advised FOX5 that her son and daughter, ages 6 and 10, had been traumatized by the incident.
“My son is terrified, he was scared, he referred to as for his older sister as you could possibly hear he was crying … he was horrified … you’re imagined to be defending him,” she mentioned.
“I don’t know why he advised them sit at the back of the bus as a result of the excessive schoolers sit again there and usually the primaries sit proper behind the bus driver.”
She mentioned the incident was not the primary time her household had complained about O’Neil and that she believed his actions had been racially motivated.
“I’ve by no means put my palms on a baby and I used to drive college buses too,” she mentioned.
“My children don’t wish to return to highschool … they don’t wish to get again on the college bus.”
After O’Neil’s arrest, Carter and her husband, Blake, launched a press release thanking their neighborhood for help within the week because the upsetting confrontation.
“We’re very relieved that fees had been filed and that no different mother and father have to fret concerning the security of their kids on the subject of Mr. O’Neil,” they wrote.
“We actually respect the NAACP for all their help and help and in addition the help from the neighborhood.”
The Carters additionally confirmed that they’d completely eliminated their kids from the Morgan County college system, stating that they had been sad with the district’s preliminary response to the incident.
“We really feel like [O’Neil] was terminated as a result of the story received extra protection than the Morgan County Constitution Faculty System would have appreciated,” Nequania Carter mentioned.
“It was rumored that they had been simply going to ship him to be retrained.”
The household additionally alleged that Alicia Lord, the college system’s transportation supervisor, ignored a number of households’ earlier complaints about O’Neil.
In the meantime, Morgan County Chief Deputy Keith Howard advised the Morgan County Citizen that police couldn’t decide whether or not the confrontation was racist in nature primarily based on the three video and audio recordings they reviewed.
“Investigators took further time to analyze all of the info to incorporate consulting with prosecutors within the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit,” he mentioned.
“Investigators couldn’t set up a nexus that the incident was racially motivated.”
O’Neil spent a day in custody earlier than being launched on bond. He’s awaiting a court docket date, at which period he’ll enter his plea.
The Carter household and the Morgan County Constitution Faculty System didn’t reply to requests for remark. O’Neil couldn’t be instantly reached.
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