Your Daily Awful: Disabled 13-Year-Old Pushed From Her NYC School Bus Into Oncoming Traffic
Bullying has become a huge national topic of discussion, with everyone from celebrities to lawmakers to mommybloggers weighing in with their opinions and possible solutions. There are a few bullying tragedies and horror stories that have gripped our attention and dominated the media. And I’d like to introduce you to the latest bullying victim that I think we’ll all be talking about for quite a while: Amore-Virginia Peterson.
Amore-Virginia is a 13-year-old girl with bipolar disorder who attends the Brooklyn Children’s Center, a school for disabled students. Last week, she was riding home on the school bus and a male student was bullying her. He spit on her. He threw books at her. The bus had two matrons riding on it who were attempting to control the incident, but apparently could not do enough.
They sent Amore-Virginia to the back of the bus to get away from her bully. But as she followed their instructions, the boy rushed at Amore-Virginia, opened the back door emergency exit and tossed the teen out of the bus into oncoming traffic. Amore-Virginia’s tormenter also tumbled into the road and continued to pursue her when she fled into a barber shop.
The teen suffered a broken collar bone from the incident and had to be taken to the hospital, though obviously, her injuries could have been much worse. The young woman told reporters, “I thought I was going to die.”
What makes this story even more disturbing is that this boy, a child who threw her peer out of a moving school bus, was somehow let back on the same bus with Amore-Virginia the day after the incident. That his parents were not contacted the following day and forced to find alternate means of transportation for their child is mind-boggling.
Amore-Virginia’s mother is demanding that the Board of Education step in and make sure that her daughter’s bully is no longer allowed to be on the same bus route. She’s even considering moving her daughter to another school if necessary. The fact that this mother must even consider the option is ridiculous.
It is hard to imagine how such a dangerous and violent incident could take place with two grown adults also on the bus, supposedly preventing this very type of horror. What’s more, if a student cannot be controlled by two adults on a bus and still finds a way to harm his classmate, he should no longer be allowed the privilege of using school transportation. I cannot imagine that this is even debatable.
Thankfully, Amore-Virginia was not killed when pushed into oncoming traffic. Thankfully, she escaped this incident with just broken bones. But her story should push parents to continue discussing bullying and what we can do to help our kids, whether they are being bullied, watching someone be bullied, or being the bully themselves. The first defense against this violent, often tragic problem, is active parenting.
(Photo: Nagel Photography/Shutterstock)
