‘It was frightening;’ Local mother accuses school bus driver of choking son

DAYTON — A local mother wants answers after she said her son got off the bus with a cut and fingerprints on his throat Tuesday afternoon.

His mother, Chelsea Ray, told News Center 7′s Kayla McDermott that he had no marks when he got on the bus, but left with a cut and fingerprints on his throat.

Pathway School of Discovery is a charter school that uses Dayton Public Schools busses. The boy’s mother said could not believe she saw marks on her son over a cell phone.

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“It’s disgusting. It’s disgusting that another person would even put their hands on somebody else’s child,” Ray said.

Ray said when she picked up her son Ya’Kaire Hopkins there were finger marks on his neck.

“It was frightening and scary,” Hopkins said.

Other students were using their phones on the bus, which is what Ray says sparked the driver to get angry with her son in the first place.

“I was on the phone with him as he was getting on the bus. First words I hear was ‘Get off your [expletive] phone,’” May said. “I say ‘Who is that?’ He said ‘Mom, that’s the bus driver.’”

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Ray says she heard the driver ask her son to hand over his phone. He did not - and her son says that’s when the driver hit the brakes.

“He was in a whole lane and just stopped,” Hopkins said.

Ray immediately filed a police report and has been demanding answers.

“My son sustained injuries. I took him to the hospital from it. The bus driver needs to pay for what he has done to my child,” Ray said.

She says there is video of exactly what happened on the bus, but Ray says DPS has not let her see the footage.

She said she feels like they are hiding something.

News Center 7 reached out to DPS for a statement and received the following statement:

“We are in the process of actively investigating the incident. The safety of all students is our utmost priority and we take all reported concerns very seriously.”

DPS said they will be happy to give us more details when they finish their investigation which we plan on following closely.

News Center 7 will continue updating this story as we learn more.

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