Gruesome footage shows a ten-year-old autistic boy being beaten by his teaching assistant, who allegedly abused at least three children for months, leaving them with bruises and scars.
Kiarra Jones, 29, was charged last week with third-degree assault on a person at risk and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 3.
The video from Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC Attorneys at Law, the firm representing three families, shows Jones repeatedly hitting the child, who has severe autism and no verbal skills, as they rode the school bus together.
Heartbroken parents of children at Joshua School in Englewood spoke out Tuesday, claiming the abuse on the school bus had gone on for months.
“How dare you abandon my son in such an astonishingly avoidable way?” said Jessica Vestal, the mother of Dax, who was brutally beaten in the school bus video, as she wiped away tears.
Gruesome footage shows a ten-year-old autistic boy being beaten by his teaching assistant, who allegedly abused at least three children for months, leaving them with severe bruises and scars
Kiarra Jones, 29, was charged last week with third-degree assault on a person at risk and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 3.
Three children were allegedly abused by Jones while traveling on a specialized school bus operated by Littleton Public Schools
Three children were allegedly abused by Jones while traveling on a specialized school bus operated by Littleton Public Schools.
They rode the bus every day between their homes and the Joshua School, a specialized school that provides one-on-one instruction for autistic students.
According to Cyndy Lystad, executive director of the Joshua School, the Joshua School operates independently of Littleton Public Schools.
A video from the school bus on March 18 shows Jones first pushing Dax in the stomach, then punching him in the face before slamming the 10-year-old’s head into the window of the bus.
The boy was hit so hard that his head fell back and hit the chair, investigators who viewed the video wrote in documents.
In photos released by the family’s lawyer, the autistic child had severe bruising on his feet as a result of the March 18 incident, but further evidence shows he had suffered cuts on his lips and bruises on his neck two months earlier .
Vestal said she contacted the school and texted Jones immediately after noticing injuries to her son’s foot and thigh.
The next day, she was told that Jones would be charged with abuse, given the school bus surveillance footage to and from Joshua School.
Heartbroken parents of children at Joshua School in Englewood spoke out Tuesday, claiming abuse on the school bus has gone on for months
“How dare you abandon my son in such an astonishingly avoidable way?” said Jessica Vestal (pictured with her husband Devon), mother of Dax, who was brutally beaten in the school bus video, as she wiped away tears
Starting in about September, the three families noticed unexplained injuries to their children, including scratches, bruises, a lost tooth, a broken toe, a black eye and other deep bruises on their bodies and feet, their attorney said. Pictured: Brittany Yarborough (right) and Jessica (left), whose children were on Jones’ bus
Vestal said she was in shock and couldn’t even watch the video, as reported by the Denver Post.
“I was immediately in disbelief – how could someone I trusted, someone I was so close to, do this to my son,” Vestal said after playing the video at the conference.
The devastated mother said she bought Jones Christmas presents, made tea when she wasn’t feeling well, and the two occasionally texted each other.
Between last September and March this year. Vestal has a record of 15 dates where she found Dax with injuries, and she was told that three of those dates coincided with images of Jon’s alleged abuse, she said.
But Dax is just one of many children who came home from school injured, as three families have now spoken out, describing their experiences and demanding justice for their autistic children.
“My son doesn’t have the ability to tell me when someone is hurting him. My son doesn’t have the ability that he was forced to watch someone hurt his friends,” said Kevin Yarbrough, father of an 11-year-old, severely autistic, nonverbal boy on Jones’ bus.
“My son was abused by the people who were put in place to protect him,” he said, his voice shaking.
In one of the photos made available by the family’s attorney, the child’s right ear can be seen bleeding after he got off the bus one day in October.
A month earlier, the boy, who suffered from life-threatening autism, broke his toe and was taken to hospital, the parents said.
“My husband and I have struggled to find words that can adequately express how incredibly shocked and shocked we are,” said the third mother who accused Jones of abuse.
Parents said autistic children could occasionally hurt themselves, and they all attributed the mysterious, unexplained injuries to accidents.”
‘He’s a self-harming child. Unfortunately, we usually assume he did it to himself,” Yarbrough said.
She added: “I feel betrayed. We fight so much with districts, schools, and teachers to make sure the kids get everything they need with their IEP (Individualized Education Program).
‘I never thought about the bus for a second because it seems so basic… We assume they keep our children safe because that is their duty. Now I feel like we’re going to be questioning everyone forever.”
“I’m sure a lot of people will say, ‘Why would you put this video of your child out there?’ If you don’t look at it, the words don’t encompass it,” Vestal said.
“If he had to go through it, the least everyone could do would be to pay attention to it so it doesn’t happen again.”
Three families noticed unexplained injuries to their children, including scratches, bruises, a lost tooth, a broken toe, a black eye and other deep bruises on their bodies and feet, their lawyer said
In photos released by the family’s lawyer, the autistic child had severe bruising on his feet as a result of the March 18 incident, but further evidence shows he had suffered cuts on his lips and bruises on his neck two months earlier .
Beginning in about September, the three families noticed unexplained injuries to their children, including scratches, bruises, a lost tooth, a broken toe, a black eye and other deep bruises on their bodies and feet, their attorney said in a statement.
They also observed significant shifts in their children’s behavior and brought their concerns to the school.
In an email to the Joshua School in January, Vestal asked about bruises on her son’s arm, neck and thigh.
“We have reviewed the video and nothing untoward occurs during the drive home,” Michelle Molina, Littleton County transportation operations supervisor, wrote in an email.
According to the lawyer representing the families, the… Joshua School believed abuse occurred on the bus with Littleton Public Schools (LPS).
“LPS looked at a single bus ride and determined nothing was wrong and provided no further monitoring, allowing months of uninterrupted abuse to continue,” the statement reads.
After Jones was arrested this month, Littleton Public Schools released a statement saying Jones was hired in August after “satisfactory reference checks and after passing a thorough background check.”
“During her employment at LPS, she had very limited access to students. She has had no contact with students since March 19, the day her employment was terminated,” the statement said.
