DEKALB COUNTY, Ala. — A mother in DeKalb County said she is outraged with how the district handled an incident involving her child.
Paulescia Dawson said her daughter, Chloe, was attacked while riding the bus on Nov. 4, as she was coming home from Fairington Elementary School.
"After she got off the bus, she came home crying and said that she was jumped on the bus. And I said, 'By who?' She said, 'By multiple boys,'" Dawson said.
Dawson said Chloe, who's in 4th grade, has been upset in the days following the incident. She was so worried she took her daughter to Children's Hospital for treatment.
"I spoke with the principal. He pulled me into the office and he wrote down the incident of what happened on the bus," Dawson said.
"I spoke with the bus driver, and I was asking her, 'You know, what was going on? Why did you not stop the bus?' She told me, "That's not her job. She don't get paid to break up fights."
In the days that followed, Dawson withdrew her daughter from Fairington Elementary and enrolled her in another school in DeKalb County.
The DeKalb County School District sent the following statement to 11Alive:
"The District is aware of an incident on November 4th involving a physical altercation between Fairington Elementary School students on a bus. These behaviors will not be tolerated at any of our schools or on buses.
In this instance, District personnel from the school, transportation, and public safety investigated the incident, and appropriate disciplinary consequences were applied to the students involved, as outlined in the District's Student Code of Conduct."
Dawson said more needs to be done in the district to prevent fights from happening among students. Her main concern, she said, will be other parents dealing with the same anxiety that she's dealing with, as a result of what happened to her daughter.