Mother suing Beaufort County schools after special-needs 4 year old slapped on bus

The mother of a special-needs child punched and slapped by a bus monitor in February 2015 is suing the Beaufort County School District for negligence, according to court records.

A hearing has been called for Thursday before Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen to settle some issues between the attorneys for the mother, Bert Utsey III of Walterboro and Rob Metro of Hilton Head Island, and the defendants: the school district, Durham School Services — which the district contracted to provide bus services until this school year — and bus monitor Lillian Jackson.

The parties went through the necessary mediation in April, about a year after the lawsuit was filed, but failed to come to a settlement after six hours of negotiations, court documents state.

Jackson was arrested in February 2015 after the victim’s mother noticed bruises on her son and pressed the school to review its bus video. Police later released footage of once incident that showed Jackson repeatedly repeatedly slapping the child while he was riding the bus to Bluffton Elementary School.

Now, it seems, there were other incidents of alleged abuse.

The mother’s lawsuit states the victim “was physically and mentally abused on numerous occasions by Jackson,” unlawful contact that “caused severe and lasting bodily and personal injuries.”

Earlier this summer, attorneys said the school district was withholding video evidence of other violent incidents, as well as copies of all documents and items that were provided to law enforcement and information about when the videos were downloaded, copied, viewed and if applicable, revised and deleted, according to a June 13 court filing.

All videos were transferred from bus recorders to district laptop to a district server, the document said. It wasn’t clear Wednesday whether the district had since provided the attorneys with additional materials.

Police charged 63-year-old Jackson, of Seabrook, with one count of child neglect in February and six other counts in April 2015.

The next month, the child’s mother filed her lawsuit.

It was not the first time that the boy’s mother had reported Jackson inappropriately handling her son.

According to the February police report, the mother woman accused Jackson in September 2014 of forcing her son to cover his mouth when he coughed, bruising his wrists in the process.

The district and Durham reviewed video from the bus ride and decided not to take any action, including notifying law enforcement, assistant principal Kenyatta Frederick told officers after the second incident was reported.

The district, represented by Duke Highfield of Charleston, has denied responsibility for Jackson’s actions, arguing she acted outside her capacity as a special-needs bus monitor when she struck the victim.

The district, Durham and attorneys for the mother declined to comment on the pending lawsuit Wednesday.

Attempts to reach Jackson were unsuccesful. Her seven criminal cases are pending, according to court records.

This story was originally published September 7, 2016 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Mother suing Beaufort County schools after special-needs 4 year old slapped on bus."