A middle school student was arrested early Thursday afternoon after a 74-year-old school bus monitor reported being attacked.
The school resource officer at Oak Park Middle School in Leesburg, who is a Lake County sheriff’s deputy, spoke with the bus monitor, who said the 13-year-old student was told to sit in a specific seat on the bus. The victim said the student refused and attempted to move to the back of the bus, so he blocked his path and told him a second time to sit up front, a Lake County Sheriff’s Office report states.
The victim said the student refused again and started climbing over seats to move to the back. The victim said he then put his arms up to block the student’s path and he “attempted to muscle” through his arms.
The victim said he then wrapped both of his arms around the student’s legs and the student yelled, “Let (expletive deleted) go of me.” The student then allegedly put the victim in a headlock and begin squeezing his neck in a chokehold, the report says.
The victim asked the bus driver to call law enforcement several times and let go of the student’s legs. The student then released the victim and moved to the back of the bus, the report says.
The deputy reviewed security footage of the incident that was sent by the school district’s bus transportation unit. He also spoke with several other students who confirmed the victim’s story and then arrested the student and charged him with battery on a person 65 years of age or older.
