Elderly School Bus Driver Fired For Getting Physical with Two Black Kids

A white bus driver in Morgan County, Georgia, has lost his job after a video showed him shoving a pair of young Black siblings.

The incident went down on Sept. 9 and stemmed from the bus driver — James O’Neil — instructing a 6-year-old boy to sit at the back of the bus.

According to the Morgan County Citizen, this went against the regular practice of younger children sitting toward the front of the bus, as high school students sat toward the back.

After the 6-year-old objected, the bus driver proceeded to shove him, according to another student’s video footage.

In response, the boy’s 10-year-old sister objected by yelling, “Stop pushing my brother!”

O’Neil responded by telling her to “shut [her] mouth,” and he proceeded to then aggressively push the 10-year-old while saying, “What a pain in the neck you guys are. Get back there.”

Following an investigation, O’Neil was ultimately arrested this past Friday.

“The investigation resulted in the arrest of James O’Neil on two counts of simple battery,” Morgan County Chief Deputy Keith Howard said, the Morgan County Citizen reports. “While this was not a complex investigation, it was complicated by the allegation that the incident was perceived as being racially motivated.”

However, authorities ultimately determined that they couldn’t prove that the conflict was racially motivated, though O’Neil will nonetheless get his date in court to face battery charges.