Terrebonne law enforcement, school officials investigate bus fight captured on video

Three students were involved in a fight on a Terrebonne Parish school bus on the way home from school Wednesday, the Sheriff's Office reported.

Superintendent Bubba Orgeron said that, as the bus driver stopped to let students off the bus, one student from Houma Junior High and two students from Terrebonne High School broke into a fight that was captured on video by students and circulated on social media.

Because of the age of the students, neither the school district nor law enforcement could identify them. Both school officials and law enforcement are investigating the fight.

Officials from each school involved will decide on punishments, if any, that result from the findings of the ongoing investigation. According to Orgeron, they range from one- to 10-day suspensions from the bus or/and school, to possible expulsion.

According to a spokesperson with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office, the incident occurred about 3 p.m. Aug. 9 at a stop on the eastside of Houma. The Sheriff's Office is actively investigating the incident and could not comment further.

Orgeron said it is school policy that if a fight occurs on a bus, the driver is to pull the vehicle over onto a safe shoulder, contact law enforcement, and then do their best to break up the fight safely.

"That's kind of what happened yesterday, she happened to be at a stop," he said. "And then the cops joined her on the bus after that."

The school district recently announced changes to the bus routes. According to Orgeron, these two schools were not newly merged, and have ridden together previously. During the last school board meeting, he announced new security cameras that administration could tap into to view in real time.

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He explained that the footage captured of the event is helping in the investigation, but no one was watching it as the fight unfolded.

"We don't watch live," he said. "It's not like a bank of cameras where we have somebody designated to watch all of them. It's only as needed, like if there is a predetermined concern."

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Terrebonne law enforcement, schools investigate fight on bus