GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Parents of a five-year-old boy say they want action after their son was injured, during what the superintendent calls "a severe bullying incident". They say the bus driver didn't do enough to help him.
Jermon Burrell and Timia Blanton say their son is healing from bruises to both his head and stomach, but is still afraid after what happened. They are anxiously awaiting more answers from Northview Public Schools.
It happened last week when Blanton was waiting for her son to get off the bus.
"I noticed this time that he was just crying like, hysterically, just crying really bad," says Blanton.
Another student on the bus told her a sixth grader beat him up. Jermon Burrell, the boys father, was devastated.
"It caused a lot of frustration for me like in anger to see another upside of my son's head to see the bruises as I'm giving him a bath," says Burrell.
After days of waiting, the district finally allowed the parents to see footage from the bus camera footage.
It was something no parent wants to see.
"It's constant, constant torture," says Burrell.
They say a group of older kids talked together before inviting their son over.
"They're, like, kind of telling him, come sit here, come sit right here," explains Blanton.
That's when they say the attack began.
"He was just trying his hardest to fight them off, but they were just too strong," says Blanton.
"He takes his head, he's banging it against the metal part of the window," describes Burrell. "They intended to kill my son, it seemed like, in the video."
They say he was also kicked in the stomach repeatedly. All while they say the bus driver never intervened.
"She kind of failed my son, she neglected him for 15 minutes," says Blanton.
In a statement to 13 ON YOUR SIDE, Northview Public Schools says they are horrified by the incident, saying in part, "We are also reviewing our transportation safety measures to ensure the safety of all students and will continue to keep parents and our school community informed of important information as it becomes available and appropriate to share."
Both parents hope no other parents have to see their kid treated this way, and is raising awareness of what happened to their son.
"He was destroyed," says Burrell. "They treated him as if he was a rag doll."
The bus driver remains on administrative leave while the incident is investigated by both the district and the Kent County Sheriff's Office.
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