NEW LENOX, Ill. (WHDH) – A video showing a bus aide slapping a 6-year-old girl with autism has left her parents heartbroken, outraged and calling for change.
In the video, which is hard to watch, a bus beating was caught on camera. A school bus aide in Illinois is accused of repeatedly hitting a little girl who’s living with autism.
“Ahhhh,” the girl could be heard saying as the aide yells “No! No! No!”
Shocking video appears to show the bus aide in hitting a child not once, but twice.
The parents of 6-year-old Kayle Rushing are now demanding answers after obtaining the video. Seeing a school bus aide treat Kayle like that enrages her parents.
“My blood boils. I think about it and it just makes me mad. She shouldn’t have to go through that,” said Nicholas Rushing, Kayle’s father.
“It just makes me want to cry to be honest with you. As a mom, just seeing that, it’s disgusting,” said Madeline Norley, Kayle’s mother.
Kayle is bouncing back from the incident, but speaking about it isn’t easy for her.
“She’s nonverbal. She can’t come back and be like, Dad, this lady hit me, not just once, she hit me twice,” Nicholas Rushing said.
Kayle’s parents say they found out about the incident when the superintendent of their school district called and showed them the video earlier this week.
The district’s superintendent emphasized that the bus aide is not a school employee and instead works for the district’s bus contractor.
On Friday, the executive director of that district’s bus contractor would only say: “I cannot provide a specific comment at this time. There is an ongoing investigation of an incident that allegedly occurred on a student school bus.”
Kayle’s parents say the incident “definitely” had an impact on her. They just want bus aides to be trained to handle kids that might need some extra help.
“When she’s having that meltdown, she needs that space. She needs her space and be able to come down and be able to mellow it out herself. And she does it,” Nicholas Rushing said.
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