79-year-old Florida bus aide charged after allegedly striking nonverbal autistic boy

People reports that, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office press release and a criminal affidavit, 79-year-old school bus aide James Savage Jr. was arrested and charged with child abuse after police allege he purposely harmed a 9-year-old nonverbal autistic boy on a school bus.

Deputies responded to Cypress Creek Elementary School on Friday, Jan. 9 after the boy’s mother alleged he may have been struck on the bus. The affidavit reviewed by the outlet says Savage "intentionally and willfully slapped the victim on [his] left hand" and then took off his baseball cap and "smacked the victim on the left side of [the] face" while the child was harnessed to a bus seat; the boy reportedly sustained a "red linear marking to the top of his left hand." The sheriff’s office included surveillance footage it said appears to show a man slapping a seat, then moving back and later appearing to smack the boy; the video also appears to show the child grabbing the left side of his head and extending an arm before it is slapped away.

Savage was arrested and now faces one charge of child abuse. "Any form of abuse against a child is completely unacceptable," Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a press release. "Children deserve to feel safe at all times, especially in the care of those entrusted with their well-being.

Key Topics

World, James Savage Jr, Hillsborough County, Cypress Creek Elementary, Chad Chronister, Child Abuse