GREENE COUNTY — A former teacher’s aide who was convicted of attacking a special needs student on the bus last year has learned her sentence.
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Tenyetta Olinger, 49, of Fairborn, was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Friday.
The sentencing came after Olinger was found guilty of assault and endangering children in November.
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As previously reported by News Center 7, Fairborn resident Dustin Jackson said his son, Nathan, who is nonverbal autistic, was assaulted by a Sugarcreek Academy employee, later identified as Olinger.
Nathan took a Fairborn City Schools bus to and from Sugarcreek Academy in Bellbrook, which is a Greene County Educational Service Center (ESC) school.
His father said a teacher’s aide from his class “mistreated him getting on the school bus” on January 28.
Jackson shared photos of Nathan that he took the same day. He had a black eye and a swollen knot on his forehead.
According to the police report, a teacher’s aide told an officer that the employee allegedly grabbed the boy’s wrist, then lifted him by his harness straps and “muscled” him into the seat.
The aide continued and said the accused employee threw the child “into his seat with such force that he struck his head against the window and cried out in pain,” the report read.
As shown on News Center 7 at 6:00, Olinger addressed the Nathan’s family.
“I would never intentionally hurt your child,” she said. “I was trying to make a bond with him.”
Jackson spoke with News Center 7 at the sentencing on Friday.
“Even in her statement, it was still all about her,” he said. “You know, now she never gets to work with children again, and she never gets to use her degree that she works so far for. Who cares? You shouldn’t have hurt my son.”
Jackson shared his son’s long recovery journey.
“Nathan has been dealing with PTSD since the assault because the rest of that school year, it was like pulling teeth to get him on a bus,” he added.
Olinger’s attorney told News Center 7 on Friday that they will appeal her sentence.
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