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JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — A school bus driver is speaking out exclusively to FOX31 after she was assaulted by a student on her afternoon route, and the attack was caught on surveillance.
Jefferson County school bus driver Laura Owen loves her job because of the kids she serves and safely getting them where they need to go.
“It’s a pride, pride in doing that is why I do it,” Owen said.
With safety her priority, it makes what happened to her on Jan. 29 all the more devastating and difficult for Owen to take in.
Video obtained by FOX31 captures a female student coming up behind Owen on an afternoon stop. Owen said she initially asked that student’s boyfriend to get off at this stop for moving around the aisles, standing and putting safety in jeopardy.
The video shows the female student put a phone with who she says is her mother on the line up to the driver as Owen pleads for her not to. Owen then is heard on surveillance repeating the threats she hears on the phone — that this person is going to “kill her” — before asking the female student to exit the bus again.
“We only implement the bus safety that we are instructed to do per district policy and nothing more than that,” Owen said.
After refusing to get off of the bus, the student then goes back to a seat and is seen coming back to Owen and physically assaulting her.
“I didn’t do anything to deserve that. This situation should have never happened,” Owen said.
Owen suffered a concussion and now battles residual and constant ringing in her ears, headaches and neck pain on top of emotional trauma as she tries to recover a portion of her salary through workers’ compensation.
“The best thing I can do is get back to work at this point. But physically and mentally, I have to be OK for those kids. So I’m doing the best that I can right now,” Owen said.
“I can’t change what happened. I can only pray that things get safer throughout the district,” Owen said.
After school bus attack, Jeffco Public Schools responds
FOX31 asked Jeffco Public Schools if this student has assaulted another employee in the district before and whether or not she should have been on the bus in the first place.
FOX31 was told the district is working to respond to these and other questions and has provided the following statement in the meantime:
“On January 29 a very serious incident took place on one of our school buses which resulted in harm to one of our bus drivers. Disciplinary action has been initiated by the district and local law enforcement has an open investigation related to this matter.
We want to commend the other students who were on the bus at the time who checked in on the driver’s wellbeing and offered her support in addition to the SRO who responded immediately. In Jeffco we value all of our staff and our bus drivers, in particular, play such an important role in students’ education in getting them to and from school. It is absolutely unacceptable to us that an employee would come to harm on the job. In reviewing all safety incidents we strive to improve and strengthen our measures to keep our staff and students safe.
The district is concerned for this driver’s wellbeing and working with her to ensure she has the time she needs to recover and support to return to the job when she is ready.”
Jeffco Public Schools
Loved ones have made a GoFundMe for Owen to support her while she is out of work recovering.
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