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CMS bus driver suspended, accused of encouraging fight between students

By Paul Boyd
By Paul Boyd

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has suspended one of its bus drivers after a violent fight between students broke out Tuesday afternoon next to a bus full of children.

Several videos of the fight quickly spread among students at North Ridge Middle School.

Channel 9 blurred the faces of the two girls accused of being involved in the fight and obtained a picture of when the girls were still best friends on the school's cheerleading team.

CMS officials are trying to answer questions during their investigation, including an allegation by family members that the bus driver encouraged the fight between the eighth-grade girls when they first boarded the bus at school.

Investigative reporter Paul Boyd spoke exclusively with the grandmother of one of the girls.

"To look at the video itself is very disturbing. It's heartbreaking," said Gloria Jackson.

She said that when the bus arrived at the other girl's stop, the driver allowed that girl's mother to walk onto the bus and provoke her granddaughter into fighting.

Then, she said the driver put the bus in park with the door open while the taunting continued outside the bus.

"I believe at any point that bus driver could have closed that door and my granddaughter could have still been on that bus and got to her stop. But at some point she felt she had to get off that bus," said Jackson.

Jackson believes that the bus driver should not be allowed to drive a bus again.

"She got off the bus to videotape a fight. And the children that were on the bus were allowed to get off the bus and (record) video as well. She basically not only endangered my granddaughter, but every child that was on that bus was in danger," Jackson said.

She admitted that her granddaughter is far from innocent in the situation, but she believes that the bus driver is also to blame for what happened.

CMS has now seen the video. Spokesman Brian Hacker provided a statement: "The bus driver in question is suspended pending the outcome of the investigation."

There was no internal camera on the school bus that day.

CMS said only half of its 1,000 buses are equipped with cameras.

There's no timeline for the investigation into the school bus driver, but officials told Channel 9 that they are looking into the incident from every possible angle.

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