Shocking video shows school bus attendant assaulting special needs child on NYC school bus
BROOKLYN — The parents of a developmentally disabled girl say they were shocked by a video that appears to show a bus attendant assaulting their daughter.
India Knox is 13-years-old but her parents say she has the mental capacity of a 5-year-old. India rides the bus from her home in Brooklyn to a school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side everyday. Her parents say on Oct. 30, a paraprofessional on the school bus sent India’s parents a video.
India’s mom Alex Knox said her first reaction was “who is this monster attacking my child?”
“Since then she’s been traumatized,” India’s father Shaheen Knox said. “She has difficulty sleeping, she has been screaming out at night, she has been vomiting up her food.”
A bus attendant is seen on the video holding India by the hood of her jacket, shaking her and pressing her face into the seat. The other bus staffer who recorded the video alerted school officials and called India’s parents.
Police say the bus attendant is Beleck Valmont. He was arrested and charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
India’s parents retained attorney Sanford Rubenstein and have plans to sue Valmont, the bus company and the Department of Education
“We are seeking damages civilly,” Rubenstein explained. “But more importantly than that to this family is that by coming forward this does not happen to any other student.”
“The NYPD and SCI are investigating this deeply disturbing allegation, and the attendant was immediately suspended and the family was provided with a new bus route. Our students must be safe on our school buses, and anything less is unacceptable,” the DOE said in a statement.
Valmont was not home when PIX11 went to his home for a comment on the case. His attorney did not return PIX11’s email or phone call.