CMS mother says her son was assaulted by another student and his mother on a school bus

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - A fight took a strange turn on a Charlotte-Mecklenburg school bus.

And it’s one that reportedly involved parents.

It happened around 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

WBTV’s Dee Dee Gatton spoke to a mother who says her son was assaulted by another student and his mother.

Jayda Simmons said she was at work, looked at her phone, and saw 11 missed calls from her son.

“He’s like ‘Mom I need you, come immediately,’” Simmons said.

It’s not the call Simmons was hoping to get from her son, who is a sixth-grader at Piedmont IB Middle School.

“I just feel like I failed my son, because I couldn’t be there, but not only that, I feel like the people I trusted with my son, they absolutely failed him,” the boy’s mother said.

After a phone call with him, she drove to where the bus stopped and saw police.

She said the bus driver told her that her son and another student were arguing.

Following the argument, the bus driver moved Simmons’ son to the front of the bus.

Once they got to the other student’s stop, Simmons said he hit her son in the head and face.

“And the parents came onto the bus and began to encourage him to continuously hit my son,” she said.

Simmons said her son tried to defend himself, and the mother pulled his hair.

“Once we got home, my son, he just kept saying, ‘my head hurts mom, my head hurts from her pulling my hair, can I just have headache medicine?’” Simmons said.

WBTV requested surveillance video of the incident.

While they couldn’t go into detail, a CMS spokesperson shared with WBTV this message from the principal to parents of students on the bus:

“Hello Piedmont families on bus 402, This is Principal Barone with an important message. We are dedicated to maintaining a safe and secure learning environment in our schools as well as on our school buses. A fight occurred on the bus 402 today and parents became involved in the incident.

Fighting is disruptive and a violation of the CMS Code of Student Conduct. The safety of our students and staff remains a top priority and we ask parents to support our efforts to maintain a safe environment by setting a positive example for their children. CMSPD and administrators are actively investigating this incident.

Please speak to your children about appropriate behavior on the bus and remind them of the serious consequences of their actions. We appreciate your support.”

Simmons, like many parents, just wants her son to be safe.

“I trusted, you know, the system to protect my kid, I trusted that he would be okay . . . I never would have thought that anything like this would happen and the fact that I couldn’t be there to protect him, the fact that once he got in the car with me he stated mom I called you 11 times, you just didn’t come fast enough, it broke my heart,” she said.

There is still an ongoing investigation.

Per CMS policy, parents aren’t allowed on buses without permission from the principal, and doing so could result in a trespassing charge.

Simmons said she now wants to file charges.

Police haven’t shared the names of parents reportedly involved.

Related: Fight on Chester County school bus leads to arrest of a parent, sheriff’s office says

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