A Florida school bus aide has been arrested and faces child abuse charges after allegedly attacking a nine-year-old student with special needs on a school bus. The incident, captured on video by the student’s older sister and the bus’s surveillance camera, has sparked outrage.
Avieser Pinillos, a bus aide on a Northport K-8 school bus, is accused of shoving the student down into a bus seat, shaking her, and screaming at her during the incident last week.
“I think it would make any parent feel angry,” said Chief Leo Niemczyk of the Port St. Lucie Police Department.
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The video shows Pinillos’s aggressive behavior toward the child pushing her into the seat of the bus.
“I can’t explain why people do the things that they do. You know, I don’t know what was going on in his mind. I suppose that it’s probably a challenging day for him. And he reacted poorly,” Chief Niemczyk said. “I describe it as aggressive. I think you could describe it as violent. He clearly lost his temper, and it’s completely unacceptable.”
According to court documents, a student witness told police that Pinillos gave the victim one verbal command to sit down before resorting to physical force. The witness also stated that this was not the first altercation between Pinillos and the victim, but it was the most severe.
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According to WPBF, the victim suffered red marks around her neck and shoulders, but no serious injuries were reported.
“Probably any reasonable adult would feel angry seeing one of our most vulnerable members of a society victimized in that way,” said Chief Niemczyk.
Pinillos has been charged with one count of child abuse and has been removed from his position by the St. Lucie County School District. The district is also considering termination.
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