A video of a young boy on a school bus being punched repeatedly by a much bigger child spread rapidly on social media on Tuesday.
For the young boy’s mother, Dionne Conerly, 33, the incident gives a shocking glimpse of the bullying her son has faced for weeks without any intervention from the school.
Tuesday night, Conerly first found out about the incident through a video that showed an older student grabbing, pushing and repeatedly punching her fifth-grade son, Karmelo McCoi. The incident took place on the bus ride home from his school, KIPP Morial, in New Orleans East.
The video garnered about 40,000 views in 20 minutes and was deleted shortly after it was posted, upon Conerly’s request, according to the person who posted it.
The incident raises questions about school-bus safety, specifically for younger students who ride the bus alongside older kids. Periodically, after an incident on a school bus, New Orleans parents have demanded that all schools provide bus monitors to ride along with children.
The rides can sometimes be lengthy, because each charter can enroll students from across the city – and must provide them with yellow-bus transportation from home.
Conerly questioned Karmelo about the incident on Wednesday morning, she said. She learned that the fight took place nearly a week prior, on Oct. 30, and that her son reported the incident to the school, yet Conerly was never notified.
The bullying started on the morning bus ride, Karmelo told his mom. He said he told a teacher that morning about the incident at the hands of the older student, whom Conerly believes is in seventh or eighth grade.
Karmelo saw the teacher issue a verbal warning to the older child at lunchtime.
That afternoon, the bullying quickly turned physical
Conerly’s 6-year-old daughter, who also rides the bus, told her mother that the two children, Karmelo and the older child, began exchanging words that afternoon even before the bus had departed from the school.
It soon turned physical, as the older boy repeatedly punched Karmelo, allegedly because Karmelo had told the teacher, prompting the warning issued at lunch. “He waited till that evening when they got on the bus and he beat my child up,” Conerly said.
The bus driver alerted a school dean who boarded the bus to investigate, but did not remove either student, Conerly’s daughter told her mom.
On Wednesday morning, Cornerly talked to KIPP Morial officials about the incident. She believes the staff had multiple chances to intervene.
“I asked them, if a bus driver called you on the bus and said two kids had a fight, why weren’t they both removed off the bus and parents called right then and there?” Cornerly said.
“They said because it didn’t seem like it was a big deal. But as you see from the video, it’s a big deal,” Cornerly said.
The only remedy the school offered was to give the other student four days of suspension, Conerly said. The other child did not attend school today, apparently because of the shared video, she said, so there was no immediate resolution. A suspended child cannot return to school until after a parent-teacher conference, according to NOLA Public Schools guidelines. Some schools also respond to school-bus misbehavior by banning students from buses for a period of time.
A KIPP New Orleans spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Lens.
When Conerly spoke with the owner of Hammond’s Transportation, the company that provides school buses for KIPP New Orleans, he told Conerly that he was told that both children had been removed from the bus. He was also told that the incident happened over a month ago, he told Conerly. Hammond’s Transportation did not respond to a request for information from The Lens.
Karmelo was left feeling embarrassed and humiliated by the incident. He doesn’t want to go back to school, his mother said. She also worries that the bullying could escalate as the video further circulates on social media, she said.
Conerly is considering going to the New Orleans Police Department about the matter. She would like to see the other student face charges, she said.
“Just imagine if my child would have gotten injured, came home and committed suicide or went to sleep and never woke up, we wouldn’t have known anything until today,” Conerly said.
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