Bus Drivers, Teachers under Fire as School Year Starts

Corsicana, TX (WorkersCompensation.com) – A Texas teacher is recovering after being injured by a student during the first weeks of school.

Police said Corsicana, Texas, educator, Collins Intermediate School Assistant Principal Candra Rogers was hospitalized after the incident but has since been discharged. Rogers was in a classroom when a 10-student “disruption” happened. The police have not disclosed why Rogers was in the classroom. She was airlifted to a Dallas-area hospital for treatment.

"She just continues to ask for your prayers for her complete healing and continue to pray for our students and our staff at Collins and, of course, the entire district," a board member at Monday night's school board meeting said.

Rena Honea, president of Alliance AFT, a Dallas-based teachers union, said various factors could trigger a student to "cause an outrage or an outburst."

Honea said incidents like this seem to happen more in smaller districts that struggle with staffing. 

"Everyone has their own opinion, but until they walked in the shoes of an educator, until they dealt with the classroom setting, they are only guessing at what's going on," Honea said.

The school district said they plan on holding a “Jeans Day” fundraiser to help the Rogers family. The district is also collecting gift cards to give to the family.

Collins Intermediate School parent Terry Garner said the school needs to protect teachers.

"We need to protect our teachers," Garner said. "They're rare and they're hard to come by. We're not protecting our teachers – we're not protecting our students and we're definitely not notifying parents."

In San Pedro, Calif., a Metro bus driver was attacked on Aug. 22.

Officials said the 35-year-old bus driver was attacked in the morning, after a string of attacks at Metro stations in Culver City and Pasadena.

"I know that a lot of the bus drivers here have a normal route and they’re familiar to us. It’s disappointing to hear another woman was hurt at her work," Dulce Moore, a Metro rider told NBC Los Angeles.

The attacker, a man in his 30s, was taken into custody nearby, officials said. Officers said the dispute started when the suspect tried to board the bus which was stopped in a layover zone. That led to a physical confrontation. The driver was “treated on site and released,” Metro said.

Metro said it was working with investigators in the incident.

“Metro is outraged to learn about this senseless act of violence against our operator and is grateful for all our operators who deal with societal issues while transporting riders across our system," the agency said in a statement.

In New Jersey, a transit driver and passenger were arrested after the two got into a fight in Newark.

Police said the bus driver and passenger were both arrested after they got into a physical altercation. Officials said the August 17 fight started after the rider reportedly spit on the driver.

According to reports, the bus driver had told passengers to move to the back of the bus. When the drive confronted the passenger, he spat on the driver. Newark police reviewed a video of the fight, which shows the driver allegedly choked the passenger while continuing to punch him.

"It's a bus driver trying to help out the community, and you did wrong to a bus driver that's trying to help us out. He's doing his job and he wants to feel safe," bus passenger Zoey Clarke said.

Both men have been charged with aggravated assault. Officials said the bus driver is off the job pending an investigation.

New Jersey Transit released a statement confirming the investigation.

"We don't condone any form of assault aboard any of our vehicles or within our facilities. We can confirm that our driver was assaulted prior to the altercation. We want to take this opportunity to remind everyone that assaulting a transit employee is a serious offense and can result in a fine, jail time and/or a ban from riding the transit system,” the transit agency wrote.

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