PANAMA CITY — A school bus aide was fired after school administrators watched bus video showing her using force on an 8-year-old special needs child last month, according to a police report.
A Bay District Schools bus video shows former substitute bus aide Elaine Edwards, 57, allegedly grabbing a St. Andrew School third-grader “by the arm to move her to a different seat” and “grabbing the child for a second time,” the Panama City Police report quotes Department of Children and Families caseworker Heather Ehle as saying.
“It doesn’t show the child doing anything wrong to be made to move in the first place,” Ehle stated in the police report after viewing the video.
The child “sustained bruising to her upper left arm,” the report states.
Amanda Douglass, 28, wants to press battery charges because the child “deserves justice.”
The police investigation is not complete and no charges have been filed.
“No child deserves to be handled roughly or abused,” Douglass said in an interview last week. “Children should be safe on their way to school and coming home.”
Douglass said she feels as though Edwards “intentionally” used excessive force on her daughter and parents should be allowed to view videos of their child on school buses upon request.
“Some kids are deaf or mute on these buses; they can’t communicate what’s happening,” she added. “I want to know that (my daughter) is not afraid, that she feels safe when she goes to school.”
Douglass nor her live-in fiancée, 32-year-old Gerald Breen, who has been in the child’s life since she was a year old, according to Douglass, have been permitted to see the video, which, for Breen, is best, he said.
“I can’t take nobody hurting my babies; I just don’t want to see it,” Breen said. “If it’s real and DCF found it, that’s good enough.”
School bus videos are viewable by law enforcement only, according to school district security chief Mike Jones.
“The general public cannot see those, parents cannot see those, only law enforcement ... without a subpoena through our office,” he said. “And if they are to be used in the court by parents and attorneys, they can subpoena those videos.”
School district officials declined to comment on the incident.Bob Downin, transportation director, said he is familiar with this case but cannot comment because the case is “in litigation.” However, the school district failed to provide documentation proving the incident has moved forward to the litigation process.
Personnel files don’t show any prior complaints filed against Edwards, who has worked as a bus aide since 2009. A May 27 email from Human Resources Director Sharon Michalik to a number of Bay employees states Edwards was to be terminated immediately and could no longer work as a substitute “in any capacity in the future.”
The email was filed in Edwards’ personnel file. A formal letter of termination is not given to substitutes, Michalik said.
Edwards had worked at the district as a substitute bus aide, teacher and food service worker.
In an email to The News Herald, Michalik wasn’t clear about the possibility of the district hiring Edwards in another capacity outside of substituting.
“She is not eligible for rehire at this time,” she wrote.
The incident occurred about 2:30 p.m. May 22, according to the PCPD police report.
Edwards couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.
Behind a pair of light-pink framed glasses, the 8-year-old child bashfully glanced up at her mom at their beach home last week. She tugged at her arm, signaling she wanted to go upstairs to play a computer game, while her 5-year-old brother, wearing a pair of his dad’s painters paints, quietly whined for his mother’s attention.
The 5-year-old is special needs as well.
“It’s not an easy job” to raise special needs children, Douglass said. “But you learn to love and accept the children’s behavior and work around their disability and help them to move forward.
“God never gives you something you can’t handle,” she added. “I take it one day at a time.”