School bus video the talk of Galesburg

GALESBURG, Mich. (WOOD) - While police continue their investigation of a school bus supervisor who shoved a student into a bus wall, YouTube has removed cell phone video of the incident from its site.

YouTube posted a message that read, “This video has been removed as a violation of YouTube’s policy on shocking and disgusting content. Sorry about that.”

The cell phone video was shot by a student on a Galesburg Augusta Community School bus Wednesday.

The 7-year-old boy who was slammed against the bus wall stayed home from school Friday, but is fine physically. Still, his mother, Shannon Roodbergen, told 24 Hour News 8 her son has become withdrawn and clingy since the incident.

Other parents, like Ken Cote, are driving their children to and from school for the time being. He said his children told him when the school year started their bus was out of control.

“The other day I did pull my children off of the bus because they would be at the bus stop in the morning and before they would even get on the bus, the bus driver would be screaming mass murder. You’d swear someone was murdered on there. The screeching noise,” said Cote.

He said the driver could not maintain control of the children, which is why the supervisor was riding the bus in the first place.

The company that runs Galesburg Augusta’s transportation system terminated the bus supervisor, but the driver of the bus remains on the job.

Tim Vagts, superintendent of Galesburg Augusta Community Schools, acknowledges that this year’s transition to private busing has been, “a bumpy road”. Vagts said that’s in part because most of the old drivers refused to take positions with the newly hired bus management company, Cincinnati-based Auxillio Services.

The district was forced to privatize busing and make other cuts in recent years so it could survive financially, Vagts said.

He also told 24 Hour News 8 the bus drivers' decision not to stay on after privatization left the district one month to hire new drivers.

The district is forming a committee of parents, drivers and the bus company to work collaboratively to resolve the issues.

Meanwhile, Galesburg Police Sergeant Jeff Heppler continues his investigation, which will ultimately go to the Kalamazoo County prosecutor for potential criminal charges.

Heppler is reviewing other video shot on the bus which he said gives a clearer picture of what happened in the minutes before the incident.

Heppler refused to reveal what the additional tape shows, and the district has refused to release surveillance video from the bus.