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A Macon parent is urging an investigation into a Bibb County School District bus incident that left her son, who has special needs, distraught.
Heaven Smith said that when her 7-year-old was being dropped off at home on April 29, she heard loud cries from his school bus, which transports special needs children.
Upon boarding the bus, she said she immediately noticed that another student was hitting her son, his shoes had been taken and there was no bus monitor on duty.
“For the past two or three months, my son has come home crying while getting off the bus, and it’s because these kids are putting their hands on him,” Smith said.
Smith also learned her son’s hair had been cut sometime between school hours and on the ride home. Although the school district could not confirm if the incident happened on the bus, Smith shared photos of her son’s hair on social media.
Prior to publication, the school district did not immediately provide any data regarding the frequency of bullying and fighting on Bibb County buses.
However, state data indicates incidents of harm are persistent: The Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement K–12 Student Discipline Dashboard shows that 69% of the district’s total 10,109 discipline incidents in 2023 were reported as causing harm to a person.
Harm to a person incidents are coded as several offenses, including bullying, fighting and causing serious bodily injury.
During the 2022-2023 school year, over 360 discipline actions involved a Bibb County student being suspended from a school bus, according to Georgia Department of Education data. Only 49 of the incident types were labeled as fighting.
Smith reached out to Superintendent Dan Sims and the BCSD route supervisor for special needs transportation, calling for action on three major safety concerns she has: Lack of bus supervision, prevalent physical altercations on the bus and unauthorized student drop-offs.
Smith said she spoke with her son’s elementary school principal on Thursday and scheduled a meeting with transporation officials, but hadn’t received any updates from other district officials on the incident.
“The scary thing is that Bibb County is not addressing these things and they’re putting our children at risk,” she said. “It’s not just any children, but children who are already having enough struggles in life.”
The district has not responded to questions regarding the incident and told The Telegraph it is unable to disclose specific student incidents under the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act.
“The safety of students and staff is a top priority for the Bibb County School District,” spokesperson Stephanie Hartley said in an email. “The District encourages parents to reach out directly to school administrators with concerns regarding students.”
The BCSD policy on bullying says “Any report will be appropriately investigated by the administration based on the nature of the complaint in a timely manner to determine whether bullying has occurred, whether there are other procedures related to illegal harassment or discrimination that should be implemented and what other steps should be taken.”
Smith said she wants the school district’s transportation department to take the students’ safety more seriously because there have been several reports of children engaging in physical altercations on the bus.
“These are our babies that we trust in their hands twice a day,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s their responsibility, and I expect them to live up to their standards and keep our children safe. As of right now, they’re failing tremendously.”
Sims did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
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