Utah bus driver traps boy in bus doors and drives off: lawsuit

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Raw Story

Utah bus driver traps boy in bus doors and drives off: lawsuit
DOMINIQUE JACKSON
07 MAY 2019 AT 16:56 ET

Utah bus driver John Naisbitt “quietly” resigned after facing multiple accusations after he discriminated against minority students.

A 14-year-old student got caught in the doors while exiting the school bus, and Naisbitt continued to drive for another 150 feet before stopping.

“While students yelled at the driver to stop — the man pulled over again in front of West Point Junior High in northern Utah and opened the doors, dropping the boy on the sidewalk and allowing the rest of the kids in line to shuffle out,” a report from Salt Lake Tribune explained. “The boy, a seventh grader, was the only student of color on the bus.”

The boy’s mom, Brenda Mayes, is suing Naisbitt for racial discrimination. The mom has video evidence of the situation.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/utah-bus-driver-traps-boy-in-bus-doors-and-drives-off-lawsuit/?utm_source=push_notifications

[bobbieinok]

1. Did people do this before? Or did we (whites) just not hear about it?

[Merlot]

4. Upside (if you can call it that) of the internet

We hear about local stories that would have never crossed our path previously.

Were people always behaving this poorly, I'm guessing yes. Hopefully the glare of the spotlight will temper some of them.

[JI7]

8. yes, horrible things happened but things were improving but Trump

seems to have made many bigots feel they can be more open about their bigotry.

[Marcuse]

2. Front door or back door? No child abuse/endangerment criminal charges?

Last edited Tue May 7, 2019, 08:47 PM - Edit history (1)

[oasis]

3. Disgraceful, criminal behavior. He should go to jail and the bus

company get slammed with heavy civil legal penalties.

[Merlot]

5. I'm glad the mother is suing the driver, not the company

Though she might sue the company as well. I get tired of racists getting off when their company or precinct pays the legal awards caused by their actions.

[csziggy]

7. She is suing the school district, transportation director, and the driver

The boy, 14 years old and a seventh grader, was the only student of color on the bus. His family is now suing the school district, its transportation director and the driver for racial discrimination, saying he intentionally caught the boy in the door. They say there have been at least three other reports that the driver, John Naisbitt, targeted multiracial students before this. And while Naisbitt was never disciplined in connection with those prior allegations, they added, he quietly retired after the newest complaint.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2019/05/07/biracial-utah-boy-was/

As usual, Raw Story left out parts of the story from the original source. There is also video of the incident that was submitted by the mother at the Salt Lake Tribune link above.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Thank you for providing the more complete story. The video shows this was intentional,

as the bus driver had more than enough time to stop the bus, and the children were telling him he should stop well before he did it.

Very helpful. Most appreciated.

[Mendocino]

10. A reporter came to the drivers house.

Asked him if he was racist. He said "No, not at all...look at my dog...he's as black as could be."

[cstanleytech]

6. ""I think that race likely played a part in the incident," " I wish more information was contained

in the article that would provide an explanation over why she believes it was a race issue.
After all there are other possible explanations from outright stupidity by the driver to the kid saying something that pissed the driver off and the driver deciding to be a douche over it but
regardless of the reason I can see some potential criminal charges being filed against the driver.

[LibFarmer]

11. There was probably a lot of abuse like this

before. The age of cell phone videos and social media is probably bringing such things to light.

[lagomorph777]

12. That's assault, not "just" discrimination.