TAUNTON, MASS. (WHDH) - A Taunton crossing guard was arrested and charged with beating a parent with a stop sign outside a high school Monday morning, officials said.
Louis Chaves, 68, of Taunton, was arrested after police officers responded to Taunton High School for a report of a disturbance at around 7:30 a.m., police said.
Prosecutors said Chaves attacked a woman in her car when she stopped at the intersection near the high school in order to sneeze and blow her nose. Chaves allegedly reached into her open window and started hitting her with a hand-held stop sign while calling her names.
“I literally was so shocked, I didn’t even fight back,” the woman who was assaulted said. “And he hit with a stop sign, and it was something you wouldn’t think of dropping your child off at school would happen. It was a nightmare I was just stuck in and I had no control over it. It was literally the weirdest thing to ever experience.”
Chaves also allegedly attacked the woman’s daughter, who was attempting to push the stop sign out of the window, prosecutors said.
The woman, who asked 7News not to identify her, got out of the car and was knocked to the ground by Chaves, she said. She was taken to the hospital with bruises.
“He just needs to control himself, or whatever he has going on in his life. He just needs to keep it to himself and not take it out on others. I don’t know what he’s going through, but that’s not normal,” the woman said.
Chaves claimed he did not do anything.
School officials issued a brief statement confirming the confrontation, but a few parents told 7News they did not hear anything directly from the school about the incident.
“We haven’t heard anything,” one parent said. “Not that I know of.”
Crossing guards who were outside Taunton High School Monday afternoon declined to comment on the assault.
“They have to deal with a lot of motorists and that can be complicated,” said high school teacher Lisa Reid.
Chaves pleaded not guilty to his charges: three counts of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. He was released on personal recognizance, but the judge ordered him to have no contact with the woman or her daughter involved in the altercation. Chaves was also fired from his crossing guard position.
He is due back in court in August.
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