School Bus Aide Hit Nonverbal Howell Boy With Tool, Cut Him: Lawsuit

HOWELL, NJ — A school bus aide is accused of hitting a Howell Township boy with a trash-grabber tool while on a bus home from school in a lawsuit the boy’s parents have filed against the Howell Township Schools, the bus company and several people.

The lawsuit, filed Jan. 3, also accuses school district officials of retaliating against the boy and failing to take action to protect him and help him after the incident, which was captured on the video on the camera of the bus, operated by private bus company First Student.

The incident happened March 13, 2024, and the boy, who is on the autism spectrum and nonverbal, suffered a cut and was bleeding and sobbing when he was dropped off by the bus, the lawsuit says. It alleges the bus driver and aide lied about what happened, claiming the boy had an altercation with another child on the bus.

The bus aide, Quinton Schwartz, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child in the incident, according to state court records. The matter is pending in Monmouth County Superior Court.

The Howell Township School District did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for First Student said the company does not comment on pending litigation. School districts frequently hire private companies to provide busing for students on specialized routes.

The school district told the family that the bus driver and aide had been fired, but the family later learned they had been transferred to another bus route, the boy's mother said in an interview with Patch.

The boy, who was 8 at the time of the incident but has since turned 9, has been so traumatized that he begs not to go to school: On Tuesday morning, the boy put on his boots and jacket and ran out the back door of the family's home, through the woods to a playground and then to a main road, where a Good Samaritan stopped him from going into the street, the mother said.

The mother said she was getting their other child ready for school, and her husband was downstairs, when they realized it was too quiet and found the boy had taken off. The mother called 911 and ran out to find him, reaching him as the Good Samaritan was talking to him, she said.

"All he kept saying was 'no school, no school, no school,' " the mother said. Howell police confirmed the 911 call and said the mother had found him by the time police responded.

Brooke Barnett, the family's attorney, said she has seen the video of the incident and called it one of the most disturbing she has ever seen. It showed Schwartz hitting the boy with the trash grabber tool multiple times, she said.

When the boy got off the bus, he had blood on his face and was sobbing, his mother. The boy suffered a cut on his hand while he was being hit, and as he wiped his face because he was crying, smeared blood on it, she said.

"We couldn't tell where the blood was coming from at first," she said, but as she and her husband cleaned the boy up, they found a cut on his hand that was bleeding "so profusely," she said. The cut did not need stitches, however.

Since then the family has had to change their schedules so they could drive the boy to school, the lawsuit says.

The family and Barnett say they believe there were other incidents before March 13, because the boy, who had loved going to school, had been showing increasing signs of distress from September 2023 to March 2024.

He had especially become increasingly resistant to going to school before the March incident, the mother said, and the family had asked the bus driver and aide if there were issues and what they could do to help.

"They did let us know he was having some issues on the bus but said things were getting better and he was calming down," she said. Her son, however, continued to resist going to the bus.

"It started happening gradually," she said. He would run away from her husband as the bus was coming. "The worst part is we could not stop thinking 'What are we doing wrong?' "

"In one breath they’re smiling in our faces telling us everything is OK and the next they’re assaulting my child," the mother said.

After the March 13 incident, the school district told the family the bus driver and aide had been fired, but the mother said they later learned the bus driver was transferred to another bus route.

When the new school year started in September, the class her son had been in for three years moved to a different school as part of the normal school transition. Her son was moved out of that class and into one with children who have more severe disabilities, away from friends and teachers he had known for three years.

The boy also has been increasingly restricted from regular activities, the mother said.

He was barred from the lunchroom after an altercation with another student, and was barred from participating in gym class and recess because district staff could not protect him, the mother said the family was told.

When the class took an annual field trip to visit Santa and receive gifts, her son was left behind at school, and had to watch other children playing with their gifts when they returned, the mother said.

"He's supposed to have a para (a paraprofessional aide) with him at all times. I don’t understand why he’s having all these problems with a 1-to-1 para," she said.

The lawsuit alleges the restrictions are a retaliation for the notice of the family's intent to sue the district.

The mother said the boy has been receiving private therapy since the March incident, but that the school district offered nothing in response after he was hit by the aide.

"They didn't even call us to see if he was OK," she said.

The family was informed Jan. 3 the boy needed to be sent out of district because the district staff could not handle the boy's behaviors, she said, expressing frustration that the district staff is not willing to work with her son to address the behaviors instead of punishing him.

"They basically singled him out at every turn," the mother said. "We’re just back to the place that the people working with him don’t want him around."

She said she is especially disappointed because the family moved to Howell six years ago because of the autism programs in the Howell schools.

"We trusted our people with our son," the mother said. "How are we supposed to trust anyone with our son again? That’s ruined for me."