As this concerns our children, I post it here for your consideration. This four year old was traumatized and someone must be held accountable. To anyone that is willing to read this, I know this is long but please take the time to read. On September 4th 2013, the first day of school for my four year old son I received a call from the transportation department for Reedsburg schools at about 4:45 PM (as I am standing outside waiting for the bus to bring him home) telling me that my son was “in police custody screaming and unresponsive.” Of course I immediately demanded to know where he was so I could go get him. I find out he is at a church with the officer in Reedsburg. When I arrive at the church I see my son playing in the grass with an officer and another man standing there with him. The other man did not reveal who he was at the time; he turned out to be the director of business services (person in charge of transportation for the schools.) I asked the officer what happened, he told me that he was unsure and that when he arrived on the scene my son was under the seat crying and would not come out. So he said he removed him from the bus and then they called me. My biggest questions at the time were 1. What happened? And 2. Why wasn’t I called before the police were? So it’s around 5:30 before I finally get my son, I take him home and get him ready for his shower. When he takes off his shirt I see that he has scratches and bruises on his back, shoulders, neck, chest, elbows, and armpits. I asked my son what happened and he would not tell me. So I take him out to the Sauk County Sheriff’s office to document the marks and bruises. I take the Sheriff’s advice to remain civil no matter how upset I am and to confront everyone involved politely to find out what happened. I started with the bus company. They have cameras on their bus so it shouldn’t be an issue right? Well I was given a run around there and was told that they would not view the video. So I contacted the officer that removed him from the bus. He said he would try to view the video and when I showed him the pictures of the marks on my son he swore to me that he did not do anything to harm my child. The officer calls me a few days later to let me know he was denied access to the video and that he was told no one would be allowed to view it. So my next step is to contact the Director of Pupil Services for the schools. I tell him what I have been told and his first response was that he was told nothing happened. So I threatened him with a lawyer and he said he would try to view the video. He calls me and tells me that the video shows my son getting on the bus and even though all of the teachers, aids, the bus driver and my son have been told he needs to sit up front because of his age he is made to sit four rows from the back of the bus. It shows all of the bigger kids getting on at the transfer and eventually shows him going under the seat. The driver goes back to try to get him out, then a high school boy is successful and gets him to sit on the seat. The driver goes back to talk to him and gets him to go right back under the seat. I was told that’s when the director of business services was called and that the bus was shut off and the video ended. He gave me the choice of either pulling my son out of their school or putting him back on the same bus. I pulled him out. I still had my younger autistic son attending until I could find an alternative plan for him. They responded by calling a social worker on me because my child was not in school. That has backfired on them because she actually investigated the series of events that happened that day. She watched the video. The video did not end when I was told it did. She said she could see the driver trying to pull my son out from under the seat when I was told she did not touch him. She also told me that the trigger of him going under the seat was that you could obviously see how scared he was to be surrounded by all of the older kids in the back of that bus. (Where he should not have been in the first place!) So here we have a scared little four year old boy under the seat of a bus, they can’t get him out so the best idea they could come up with is to call the police instead of the parents. The most shocking and disturbing part is that after the officer took my son off the bus he allegedly threw him on the ground and put his knee in his back to restrain him! When I explained to my son many times that he was not to get off the bus anywhere but his home or his school so he was upset to be getting off the bus at a strange place with a strange person. Once off the bus they finally decided they should call me. When I approached my son and asked him if the officer was nice he told me “No!” “He sat on me and cops are mean to kids.” So now he is not only traumatized by being on the bus but he is terrified of police officers. I am reaching out to media outlets and social networking sites to help spread awareness of this incident. The Reedsburg police and the Reedsburg school district should be ashamed of their actions and should be held responsible. I don’t want this to be swept under the rug anymore that it already has. I have since pulled both of my children out of the district and the Reedsburg district fought the registration process for the one they are attending now. Please keep in mind that this is a four year old child, not a rowdy teenager or a criminal. This should have never happened. This is abuse, abuse at the hands of people we are supposed to able to trust.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 12:24:33 +0000
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