Bus driver fired for slurring Spanish-speaking student, pouring water on his head
Bus driver fired for slurring Spanish-speaking student, pouring water on his head
A bus driver in Idaho is in need of a new job after allegedly assaulting a student.
According to the Northside Bus Company in Jerome, Idaho, Mary Black was caught on camera yelling at a Spanish-speaking student. Black allegedly told the boy that he was in America and needed to speak English before pouring water over his head.
The student who filmed the altercation, Brayan Alverez, says that he turned on his camera when the bus driver got out of her seat and came to the back of the bus to accuse Miguel Martinez of throwing a water bottle.
“She tried to take his phone away and when she didn’t get to do that, she just grabbed the water bottle and started getting him wet,” Alverez said.
Martinez tried to talk to her but she went on about speaking English.
“I don’t understand Spanish. I’m not going to learn it. I live in America and it’s an English-speaking country. So if you want to speak to me, speak to me in English,” Black can be heard shouting in the video.
Juan Espino, who is the father of another student on that bus, said that this is not the first time that Black has insisted on English-only while she is driving.
“He told me he was told by the bus driver that it was not allowed to speak in Spanish while riding the bus,” Espino said.
“When I talked to one of the other kids, he told me that when that took place the driver would turn, when something like that happened, the driver would turn the cameras off,” Espino went on.
“It’s not something that we wish for, and not something that I would want to, but there will be consequences in everything that you do in life will be consequences.”