DeKalb parent says her son was injured after getting caught in the door of a school bus

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — One DeKalb county parent is reluctant to ever let her son ride the school bus again after a recent incident. Tamara Johnson says the driver closed the door on her son as he was getting off the bus.

Johnson says the force from the door of the bus closing on her son’s backpack caused him to hit his head. She later discovered the hit happened with so much force that he suffered a concussion.

“Her job is to make sure that she load and unload those children safely,” said Johnson.

She says the safety wasn’t there as she watched her 8-year-old son get closed on by the door of a DeKalb county school bus.

“When I turned around to look, I noticed that his book bag was still tucked into the door of the bus. So I immediately started screaming for the bus driver to release him, release his bookbag,” said Johnson.

Johnson says the incident happened on October 13 at a bus stop on Creek Ford Drive in Lithonia. Johnson says the driver was a substitute and not the original driver for the route.

“It probably wouldn’t have happened if she was on the route, versus a substitute driver.”

Following the accident, Johnson says her son started complaining of a headache and pain in his hand. She took him to the emergency room to get checked out.

Johnson says doctors treated her son for a concussion.

“I noticed he was asleep a lot and I had to take him back to the emergency room and they said when it happened, his head hit the door so he suffered from a concussion,” said Johnson.

Channel 2 action news has brought you concerns from parents across the metro about the impacts the school bus driver shortage is having on student’s commutes. Some parents have complained about overcrowding concerns and how the shortage has led to lesser qualified drivers.

“I asked her, did you know you closed my son’s hand in the door and she said, oh well I didn’t see him. She didn’t say, oh my gosh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know I did it. It was no empathy,” said Johnson.

DeKalb schools said in a statement, they did investigate this incident and the driver did inadvertently close the door on the student’s backpack. They say the driver did apologize about this accident.

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