Parents demand more Buffalo bus aides

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - A frustrated couple is demanding changes after they say their 7-year-old daughter was bullied on the school bus.

The little girl came home from school with a black eye and parents are again raising the question whether more bus aides should be hired in Buffalo.

Both of Brian and Nicole Marshall's daughters ride the bus to King Charter School everyday. Wednesday morning the couple got a phone call from the school saying their eldest daughter, 7-year-old De'nee, had been punched in the face by a boy her age.

Nicole explained, "She made a mistake and bumped him when she sat down he punched her in the arm, she pushed him, he punched her in the eye and she took his hat and threw it."

De'nee's parents were called to the school to pick up the second grader. She and the boy involved in the fight were both sent home because the bus driver couldn't tell what had happened.

The Marshalls say the situation wouldn't have escalated the way it did if a bus aide would have been riding along.

"It shouldn't have gotten the point where she could get hit by a little boy if somebody had been there to stop it before it progressed to where it went to, that's what I am upset about," said Brian.

The Marshalls contacted the bus company, First Student, and were told it's up to the school board to hire the bus aides."

"She told me there were no funds for them to hire bus aides. But I told her King Charter said they would put someone on the bus. She said, 'Well it's a union job. You're not going to take union jobs away from workers.' And that made me upset too because they were trying to help," Brian said.

The couple says kids will be kids and that's why an adult is needed who can focus solely on watching over the students.

"With the weather conditions how they are out here how can a bus driver drive the bus and supervise 40 to 60 kids? That's just impossible," Nicole said.

But even with aides on the bus, it doesn't mean problems are solved. A bus aide went before the school board Wednesday night to say she's a victim of bullying.

Erica Pompey said, "I am demanding for your help because if I can't go on my bus and do my job, what did you hire me for?"

Pompey says she is cursed at, pinched, hit and had things thrown at her on the bus and can't do anything about it, and though she's brought the issue to her superiors and the bus driver has written up incidents, nothing is done.

"I bring it to others and was told 'They'll get rid of you before they get rid of that child.' Because they get so much money to have those kids in that school," Pompey said.