HONOLULU (KHON2) — There is new and disturbing footage of a boy, who is on the autism spectrum, getting kicked and punched on a Hawaii school bus.
The boy’s family released the video because they believe there are more victims and that the State and the school bus company are covering it up.
The boy is a student at Roosevelt High School. His father says he knew something was wrong when his son started acting aggressively when he came home and he did not want to ride the bus anymore.
The father was horrified when his attorney obtained video evidence from the school bus company Roberts Hawaii. Kahi Logan did not want us to show his son’s face, who was 16 years old in the video from 2020.
He noticed bruises on his son’s leg for months, but his son was not able to tell him because he has a hard time communicating.
“As soon as I saw the video, I knew where those bruises were coming from. It was when she was kicking him,” said Logan.
Roberts Hawaii told Logan that the woman has been fired, but he filed a lawsuit against them and the Department of Education. His attorney believes there could be other victims and incidents, but he was told that all other videos have been recorded over.
“I really feel that this was an ongoing thing and it was covered up, and part of that cover up was the intentional destruction of the videos,” said attorney Fred Arensmeyer.
The woman was arrested for assault, according to the lawsuit. Logan says the prosecutor’s office initially told him that the video was not enough evidence to prove assault beyond a reasonable doubt.
“That’s when I really was like there’s no justice. This is an innocent child and this lady is twice the size of my child and he’s begging her to stop. How is that not illegal?” said Logan.
KHON2 sent the video to the current prosecutor, Steve Alm, who took office in December, 2020. A spokesman says, “After viewing the video, we will be putting fresh eyes on this case to determine whether to file charges… the statute of limitations has not yet run and charges can be filed, if appropriate.”
The State says it cannot comment on a pending lawsuit. Roberts Hawaii did not respond to calls from KHON2.
