WASHINGTON — A D.C. mother is demanding answers after she said her 11-year-old son, who lives with autism, was assaulted by a stranger who managed to board his school bus.
According to Chevelle Starks, the boy's mother, the alleged attack happened on Dec 10. Starks told WUSA9 she received a call from a stranger, saying her son had been assaulted on a school bus and the police were on the way.
“She put her knee on his chest. She choked him. Dragged him to the front of the bus and he was hanging out the front by the stairway,” Starks said.
Starks said the witness who called her recorded the tail end of the ordeal. She then shared the footage with WUSA9.
According to what Starks was told by that witness, the bus made a stop on 17th and Gales Northeast after an altercation between her son, Malachi, and another girl.
When the bus stopped, the witness said a woman got on board and attacked Malachi.
Starks said the person recording the video and a special officer were bystanders who stopped to help, but by the time she got to the scene, the woman who allegedly attacked her son was gone. It's unclear if there's a connection between that woman and any other child on the bus.
Starks believes all the kids on that bus were put in danger.
“We don’t know who that lady is. She could have had a weapon. Anything could have happened. No reason children should have been put in harm's way. Not just my children," Starks said.
Starks says the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) told her they’re looking into the incident, but the investigation will take about 30 days.
WUSA9 reached out to OSSE for comment multiple times but has not received a response.