Bus driver no longer drives after student attacked and beaten with belt in fight on bus

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE/Gray News) – A bus driver in Kentucky has stopped transporting students while the school district investigates a fight that broke out between two middle school students on a bus.

Mother Whitney Davis says her son, Kionni Davis, 12, suffered two black eyes after being hit by another student on the bus. Kionni is a student at Kammerer Middle School in the Jefferson County Public School District.

A video of the incident posted on Facebook and discovered by his mother shows Kionni being hit repeatedly on the head. The beating continues for over a minute as students cheer him on.

Davis said her son was also beaten with a belt. Throughout the ordeal, the bus driver never intervened, she said.

“I taught him to turn the other cheek,” Davis said. “I taught him to ignore bullying. I had no idea he would ever go through something like this.”

She later learned that the initial argument between students at school escalated into an attack on the bus. She said Kionni and her three other children, who also attend school in Jefferson County, are traumatized by the incident. She is now considering removing her children from the school district.

“If they didn't walk and weren't across the street, I don't know if I would send them to school, and right now I'm looking at other options,” Davis said.

JCPS spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan said the students involved will be disciplined in accordance with the Student Support and Behavior Intervention Manual.

Regarding the district's policy regarding fights on buses, Callahan said if a fight starts on a bus, drivers must “raise their voice” and request that the bus stop. Drivers must make an effort to break up the fight, must stop in a safe location and must contact the complex to report the fight. The complex will then call police if necessary.

However, drivers are not required to get involved in the fight. Callahan said drivers have the right to protect themselves by “standing back, never moving forward.”

After learning what happened to Kionni, two youth organizations – Hip Hop N 2 Learning and The Real Young Prodigies – threw a party for him on Wednesday to celebrate his upcoming 13th birthday.

“Violence on JCPS school buses is one of the reasons for the shortage of bus drivers,” said Antonio Taylor of Hip Hop N 2 Learning. “This is an issue that the school district and community can have a say on, but ultimately it is the responsibility of parents to educate their students about the consequences of violence and bullying.”

“It takes a leader to stand up to a bully, a follower allows bullying to happen and ignores it,” says JCPS student Love Eden of The Real Young Prodigies.

Davis says she filed a report with the JCPS Police Department and hired an attorney.

As they plan next steps, she says the support her family has received from community organizations has been overwhelming.

“The love and support that everyone is giving us is just incredible,” Kionni told reporters. “Sometimes it's overwhelming, but it's a great feeling to have a community that supports you.”

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