An 11-year-old Kansas City girl’s family has hired an attorney after they alleged her charter school refused to discipline a bus driver who harassed the girl and her best friend last week.
“She said that we are gonna burn in hell real bad,” a distraught Maurissa Rushing told WDAF-TV. “I didn’t expect it to happen.”
Rushing says the bus driver pulled the two girls aside and allegedly rebuked them for playing a game in which they “chase” each others’ fingers up their arms. The bus drive said Rushing was “gay” for touching her friend too much and that she was going to hell.
“She was talking really bad to me and I didn’t like that,” the girl shared brushing back tears and adding, “She’s just been the most horrible bus driver I’ve ever had.”
Her mother, Patricia Rushing, said neither the school nor the driver’s employer ever contacted her regarding the incident with her child, even though they were informed immediately afterwards.
“I feel like she was all day by herself, dealing with it,” the girl’s mother said. “How do you deal with that at 11?”
While the driver has reportedly been fired in advance of an internal investigation, school officials maintain that it was the bus company’s responsibility to contact Rushing’s family — not theirs.
Watch the full report below.