MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG learned new information on Monday about the driver seen on cell phone video being attacked by a group of students.
Durham School Services, the bus company contracted by Shelby County Schools, said the driver no longer works for the company.
However, it is unclear if the driver was fired or if he simply walked off of the job.
While it is not clear what happened before the camera started rolling, the video seemed to back the story the driver gave to police.
“The driver got hit with a beer bottle,” a witness told WREG on Tuesday.
The driver’s name is listed in the police report as John Harris.
Harris told officers he was letting kids off of the bus in North Memphis on Tuesday, when two students attacked him from behind.
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According to the police report, Harris admitted grabbing one of the students during the altercation while the second boy hit him in the head.
“The bus drivers can’t do it all by themselves. We as parents have to take action and start at home discussing behavior on the school bus with our children,” Latosha Ores, an East Memphis mother, said.
Students on the bus told WREG Harris may have provoked the fight, but that part was not listed in the official report.
“Adults need to know they’re adults and these are children. And it’s a way for them to behave themselves appropriately as well,” Ores explained.
“Even if the bus driver had provoked the kids in any kind of way, that doesn’t give them a reason to do what they actually did,” Drew McCraven, who lives in Cordova, said.
The driver was placed on leave right after the incident happened but no longer works for the bus company.
As for the students, who police considered suspects in the report, officers said no one was arrested.
The school district has not said if they plan on taking any disciplinary action against the students involved.
“Those kids– I think they should be dealt with,” McCraven said.
A spokesperson for Durham School Services said the bus’ cameras were rolling during that incident.
WREG requested the school bus footage last week, and we are still waiting for it.
“It makes me feel more comfortable that he’s not on there and that the children so they can feel like they’re being treated fairly too and he’s not back on the job,” Ores said.
WREG tried to speak with the driver, but no one answered the door at his home.
MPD said this case is an ongoing investigation.
