This girl was no threat to this driver. The girl says in the video while on the phone with her mom that the driver was accusing her of talking loudly. As the video starts you cannot hear the girl over the louder students. This was a matter that could have been handled with a write up and follow up in the principal's office on the next school morning. There was nothing shown to warrant the driver pulling over to start with. It looks as if there was something that posed an immediate threat to the safety of the other kids prior to this escalating it would also be shown as the tape was rolling then too.
That was your little darling on the bus, wasn’t it...
When the girl continued to the front and boldly told the the driver that she was getting off -- that was, imo, close to assault -- it was a threat of assualt. Possibly criminal.
When the girl then approached the driver and continued her insubordinate, loud, verbally abusive demand to be let off the bus that was assault and endangerment. Endangerment because the brat had by then put the safety of everyone else on the bus at risk and showed every sign of escalating both her misbehavior, the conflict with the authority, and the endangerment of the bus, and even perhaps incitement to riot. All criminal, all demanding immediate action by the driver.
When the driver pushed the girl back towards her seat, that was the PROPER and DUE action at the time. For the driver NOT to have done so was, perhaps, negligence or dereliction of duty on her part.
Here is another report:
Sullivan has her supporters.The police made a bad judgment call when they charged the driver and issued a statement saying all parties acted wrongfully. A damn bad judgment, too."In the business we call it a conflict spiral. It's a situation where things were bad, got terribly worse," said Huntington Coach Corp. senior manager Paul Mori.
Mori, a school bus driver instructor, said it looked like Sullivan acted reasonably.
"Calm down. Just calm down," Sullivan said on the tape.
"I believe the driver was trying de-escalate the situation with the student," Mori said. "It sounds like she tried to keep a pretty level tone about herself in the situation. She didn't lose it."
The Higley Unified School District also backs its 54-year-old bus driver and sent letters to parents Wednesday saying it is conducting its own investigation.
"The district is standing by their bus driver, by their employee. The driver was following the training she received and Arizona law. It's a situation where the student was not following the direction of the bus driver," the district said in a statement.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=4344477&page=2
I hope the locals follow up on as to why the police -- specifically Gilbert Police Department Sgt. Mark Marino. who made that premature and ill-considered statement. Is there some conflict of interest with a family, or a background police dispute with the school authorities? It was a very unwise charge to lay against the driver and her daughter and an extremely unwise public statement to issue.