Mother details 5-year-old daughter's altercation on school bus: 'Immediately I noticed it wasn't' marker on her face
A Georgia mother is concerned for her 5-year-old daughter’s safety after the girl was attacked on a school bus by a 12-year-old.
Aubrey Corley says her daughter, Briellea Gamez, was poked, slapped and even strangled on her way home from school on Dec. 4. Corley tells Yahoo Lifestyle that it was just a regular Tuesday when she went to pick up her daughter from the bus stop before she noticed that something was very wrong.
“From a distance, it first looked like Briellea had marker on her face, but immediately I noticed it wasn’t and she was crying and screaming,” Corley says. “Briellea got to my car door and I noticed the bus trying to pull away. I quickly jumped out my car and ran to the bus driver’s window.”
According to Corley, the bus driver — who has been driving Gamez to Samuel E. Hubbard Elementary School in Forsyth, Ga., since she started attending 2017 — “casually” told her that her daughter had been slapped. Corley says that the driver assured her that he was going to write up the children who were responsible up and move Gamez to the front of the bus. However, once Gamez explained the severity of the attack she faced to her mom, further action seemed necessary.
“She said the girl slapped her, pulled her hair, grabbed her head and slammed it into the bus wall,” Corley says about her daughter’s description of the attack.
But the 12-year-old wasn’t acting alone. Instead, Corley says that a 9-year-old boy also took part in the aggressive behavior and even poked Gamez in the behind.
“The worst of it is Briellea tells me that the girl grabbed her by the throat and told her to stop breathing,” Corley says, which prompted her to call the school’s assistant principal and file a police report.
The mother also took to her Facebook page to share photos of the marks on her daughter’s face and body. Luckily, Gamez didn’t require any medical treatment.
The family has been in touch with administrators from the school, the Monroe County School District and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, in addition to a specific investigator and social worker attached to the case.
Yahoo Lifestyle has requested comment from the elementary school, the school district and the sheriff’s office and will update this post when we hear back.
The school confirmed the incident to local Macon, Ga., news station WMAZ, and law enforcement said charges have been filed against the 12-year-old, whose identity has not been made public. Both parties are said to be reviewing footage from the bus.
Corley tells Yahoo Lifestyle that her daughter has continued to ride the bus in a different seat, and the 9-year-old was moved to another bus. The 12-year-old was suspended for 10 days, but there is yet to be a solution for when she is back.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
• Photo of crowded school bus with kids ‘wedged in like sardines in a can’ goes viral
• Students, 8 and 9, stop their school bus after the driver collapses: ‘The two boys just reacted’
• Muslim mother and daughter say they were attacked for wearing hijabs
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