District employee out a job after school bus-rider allegedly hit in face with water bottle

A bus driver is no longer working for the Beaufort County School District following a report that he allowed an adult to board, yell at the students he was transporting, and allegedly toss a water bottle that struck a student’s face.

District spokesman Jim Foster would not say whether the driver was suspended or fired, only that the man is no longer a district employee. He also would not identify the driver, who would have broken district protocol by allowing the woman to come aboard the school bus when he was dropping students off at Heritage Lakes Drive in Bluffton on Sept. 22.

The driver was identified only by his first name in the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report on the incident. The woman was not named at all in the report, though Capt. Bob Bromage said she has since been identified and the criminal investigation is ongoing.

“We’re in the process of obtaining video and additional interviews of witnesses and the victim,” Bromage said.

The suspect was reportedly driving behind the bus on the afternoon of Sept. 22 and was angry about a water bottle that had been thrown out one of its windows. After picking up the bottle and coming onto the bus, she allegedly yelled at the students, then tossed the bottle back at them as she left, striking one juvenile girl in the face, according to the report.

The alleged assault was reported by the girl’s older sister, though Foster would not say whether the bus driver also alerted his supervisor, as is district protocol.

Foster said the district cannot release any bus surveillance video, as it’s potential evidence in the Sheriff’s Office’s investigation and could potentially be part of student disciplinary proceedings.

Several people wrote in comments on The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette’s Facebook page that students on the bus had been throwing trash out the bus window for several miles.

Foster said he could not comment on that allegation, but said parents and school bus riders are made aware that throwing objects on the bus or out of the windows is prohibited, along with other behavior listed in the district’s Student Code of Conduct.

“Those rules are reviewed at the beginning of each school year and reinforced with bus riders often during the school year,” Foster said.

This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 4:28 PM with the headline "District employee out a job after school bus-rider allegedly hit in face with water bottle."