Florida school bus driver charged with child abuse after allegedly assaulting student, police say

A Brevard County school bus driver was arrested on Monday, accused of assaulting a 12-year-old student. 

Melbourne Police responded to a call from the South Alternative Learning Center about a disturbance on a school bus that was transporting students to the center.

During their investigation, officers found that the bus driver, 59-year-old William Green of Palm Bay, had stopped the bus and confronted the student. According to police, Green pushed the student into a seat and placed his hands around the boy’s neck. Multiple students witnessed the incident, and video footage from the bus captured the event, authorities said.

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"Very traumatic experience for my kid, getting attacked by his bus driver," the child's father told FOX 35 News. "It’s crazy. It infuriated me, I wanted to handle it my way, but Melbourne police took care of it."

Green was taken into custody without incident on a charge of child abuse without great bodily harm.

"The Brevard Public School District is cooperating fully with police," a spokesperson told FOX 35 News. "The driver will not be with students as the district completes its internal investigation."

"I’m gonna push the issue as far as we can take it because, I mean, if we just let it slip through the cracks, this will just happen to somebody else’s kid," the child's father added. 

The case remains under investigation by the Melbourne Police Department.

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