Video: Teen girl, school bus driver scuffle

A video released Thursday of a melee on a Higley Unified School District bus shows a teenage girl demanding to get off the bus, the woman driver pushing the girl and grabbing her hair, and ending with teenagers jumping out the side emergency exit of the bus.

VIDEO: Watch Tribune's Nicole Beyer report

Higley sends parents letter about bus incident

Copy of letter sent home to parents in the Higley Unified School District

Police: Driver and student fought on school bus

The incident took place last Friday afternoon on a side street near Higley and Queen Creek roads. It began when 14-year-old Samantha Taylor, a student at Williams Field High School, asked to be let off the bus after the driver, 54-year-old Kim Sullivan, pulled off the road to scold the students.

Sullivan refused and pushed Taylor several times as she tried to get to the front door. Taylor then called her mother on a cell phone and told Sullivan she wanted to talk to her.

Sullivan took the phone, turned it off and tossed it to the side.

The situation escalated when Taylor reached to grab the phone and Sullivan again pushed her away.

The two scuffled for several seconds before the driver’s 16-year-old daughter, Erin Sullivan, charged through the aisle and attacked Taylor, screaming, “Get off my mom.”

But Erin Sullivan later says, “Mom get off her.”

Another student, Cassandra Schlosser, was also involved. She jumped in to try and break up the fight.

The video, shot from a camera located above the bus driver’s seat, was released by the Gilbert Police Department, which is investigating the incident.

On Wednesday night, the school district sent a preemptive letter to inform parents of the incident and let them know what was being done in response. The letter was sent to parents through a mass e-mail, and a hard copy was sent home with the kids on the bus, said Denise Birdwell, the district’s assistant superintendent of human resources.

The district is still investigating the matter. However, the three girls involved have been suspended, and Sullivan was put on paid leave.

Sullivan could not be reached for comment, and the district declined to discuss the punishments.

But Kelly Schlosser, Cassandra’s mother, said her daughter was suspended for 10 days.

Schlosser was told by her daughter that the driver routinely pulls over and demands that the students be quiet.

“If you can’t deal with a little bit of conversation, you shouldn’t be driving a bus,” she said. “It seems like she pays more attention to what’s going on behind her than in front of the windshield.”

Sullivan has worked as a bus driver for the district since June. She has driven buses elsewhere before, and the district is not aware of any complaints against the driver, Birdwell said.

Birdwell said the bus driver stopped the bus because she was distracted by Taylor. She was waiting for a district supervisor to arrive, and the situation escalated when the student didn’t sit back down, she said.

“If students are not pleased with the bus drivers, they have other options besides getting off the bus,” Birdwell said. “They should share their concerns when they get home, rather than getting in a fight on the bus.”

District officials said there is more to the situation than the video shows.

They will look into if reasonable force by Sullivan was used.

“The question that will always come to mind is, ‘What is reasonable?’ ” Birdwell said.

The district’s governing board president Ed Moore said he doesn’t think the video should have been released. “As a parent I would be upset if my child was on the video, and it’s released without permission,” he said.

A school supervisor was on the way to the bus but was stuck in traffic, and was coming from another bus-related incident, he said.

“I support that she stopped the bus,” Moore said. “I may have approached this in another way, though.”

Moore said the board needs to look at possibly adjusting policies.

“I think a change of procedure would be to call 911, in a case like this,” Moore said. “Had the student just followed instructions and sat down the whole situation would have been alleviated.”

One student did call police while the fight was going on.

Officers arrived shortly later to find that the students had already left the bus.

Police are still investigating the incident and will forward the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

The district is also reviewing the video, conducting interviews with the students and Sullivan. District officials expect their investigation to be completed by early next week.