School bus driver duct-tapes 10-year-old to restrain him, Pennsylvania officials say
A 54-year-old school bus driver is accused of duct-taping a 10-year-old boy to his seat to restrain him, Pennsylvania officials say.
The driver is facing charges of unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of a child, and assault, according to a May 30 news release from the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office.
Officers with the Upper Darby Police Department began investigating the driver on March 8, after receiving a report that a student at Hillcrest Elementary School was “assaulted by a bus driver,” the release said.
Investigators reviewed video captured by cameras on the bus, which showed the driver taping the boy’s ankles and chest, then cutting off the tape once they arrived at school, the release said, adding that the boy was never seen “trying to get out of his seat.”
“Using duct tape on a child who was already fully restrained in the vehicle’s harness was not only inexcusable, it was also dangerous,” Jack Stollsteimer, district attorney, said in the release. “Had an accident occurred, this child would have been unable to free himself from the tape. There is simply no excuse for this conduct, which is why these charges have been filed.”
The driver’s attorney, Art Donato, says his client was well-intentioned.
“All of the crimes that she was charged with require specific criminal intent, and there’s no evidence that she had any criminal intent,” Donato told McClatchy News.
“Her intention was merely to protect the child and to protect other children from the child. In retrospect you can look at it and say, ‘Well, there may have been a better way to accomplish that,’ but that doesn’t mean her conduct was in any way criminal.”
It’s unclear if the driver has been fired from the Upper Darby School District, but she “is no longer driving buses at this time,” a spokesperson for the district told McClatchy News in an email.
“We are cooperating with the local authorities in the investigation of this incident,” the spokesperson said.
Upper Darby Township is roughly seven miles west of downtown Philadelphia.
