School Bus Driver Slaps a 10-Year-Old Girl in the Face for Not Pulling up Her Mask, and It's All Caught on Camera

For those who believe schools should reinstate corporal punishment, here’s a situation where something like it occurred — in a very ugly way.

In Colorado, a bus driver’s in trouble.

As reported by KKTV, in April, a 10-year-old boarded her school bus, just south of Colorado Springs.

But the Fremont County student wasn’t sufficiently situated in accordance with the rules.

Per evidence obtained by the outlet, the driver told her to fix her mask.

Later, she and other girls in the back argued over her refusal.

From Channel 11:

In a written statement to the school, [she] says she wasn’t feeling well so she moved her mask below her nose.

Following that, bus driver Bertram Jaquez made his way to the back.

She writes he tried to pull up her mask.

Then Bertram went very, very old school:

[S]he says he slapped her for not moving the mask up.

He doesn’t deny it.

In fact, he provided a written confession:

“Out of reaction, I slapped her once.”

There was no use in denying it — the whack was caught on camera.

[Warning: The violent event is depicted below]

It’s not the first time recently that a student getting swatted’s made the news.

As you may know, earlier this month, a video surfaced of a Florida principal paddling a first grader.

From RedState contributor Shipwreckedcrew’s article:

A six-year-old girl is said to have caused damage to a school computer screen. The mother is advised by the school that she will be charged $50. …

The story suggests that the child’s mother was given an alternative — that the child would be subjected to corporal punishment by the school’s principal, but only in the presence of the mother and a Sheriff’s Department Deputy. It seems as if the Principal, Melissa Carter, was left with the impression that the parent had opted for corporal punishment rather than pay the $50 fee.

The clip went viral.

[Caution: Disturbing images follow]

As for masks, there’s been much debate over whether school children benefit from them.

In January, a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics claimed transference at school was “extremely rare.”

From the (at the time) pre-published paper:

We examined 11 school districts with nearly 100,000 students/staff open for 9 weeks of in- person instruction, tracking secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2; within-school infections were extremely rare. Each case was independently adjudicated for community or within-school acquisition by local health departments. … No instances of child-to-adult transmission of SARS-CoV-2 were reported within schools.

As for adult-to-adult or child-to-child, 32 cases were detected.

Back to Colorado, the girl explained that she gets “sick from masks.”

Purportedly, she’d told the driver the same.

Fremont County School District said Bertram had been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

Channel 11 relayed the bus driver was going to be fired, but he resigned instead.

Allegedly, in August, he’d grabbed a student by the arm over a mask issue.

From the school system’s press release this week:

We believe it is never okay to lay a hand on a child. The District responded quickly to the situation by placing the driver on administrative leave so that we could fully investigate the incident. Local police were involved during the investigation as well as us being in contact with the child’s family. The driver’s action justified termination of employment, as it goes against District policy and our values. We are very saddened by this incident. Our goal every day is to transport students safely to school and back home, but that can only happen when everyone, including students and staff, follows the rules. We are currently working to identify next steps to help our drivers with strategies designed to support a safe ride to and from school.

Bertram faces misdemeanor charges including harassment, assault causing injury, and child abuse.

How’d it all end? The girl described reaching her bus stop: