Horrifying Footage Shows Autistic Student, 10, Being Beaten by Woman on Colorado School Bus

Horrifying footage shows a ten-year-old autistic boy being beaten by his teaching aide, who allegedly abused at least three children for months, leaving them with bruises and marks.

Kiarra Jones, 29, has been charged with third-degree assault on an at-risk person last week and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 3.

Graphic video.
Denver, Colo. — A staffer with Littleton Public Schools @LPSK12 has been arrested and charged for allegedly beating a disabled child on a school bus. Kiarra Jones was recorded punching and stomping on a young boy who has a severe disability and is non-verbal.… pic.twitter.com/zgUx0MKMOu

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 9, 2024

In the video provided by Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC Attorneys at Law, the firm representing three families, Jones can be seen repeatedly punching the child, who has severe autism and no verbal ability, while they sat together on the school bus.

Heartbroken parents of children at the Joshua School in Englewood spoke out on Tuesday, alleging that the abuse on the school bus had persisted for months.

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Three kids were allegedly abused by Jones when they traveled on a specialized school bus operated by Littleton Public Schools.

They were on the bus every day between their homes and the Joshua School, a specialized school offering one-on-one instruction for autistic students.

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A video from the school bus on March 18 shows Jones elbowing Dax in his stomach first, then striking him in the face before slamming the ten-year-old’s head into the bus window.

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‘I was immediately thrown into disbelief – how could someone that I trusted, someone that I was so friendly with do this to my little boy,’ Vestal said after playing the video at the conference.

The devasted mother said she bought Jones Christmas gifts, made her tea when she felt unwell, and the two texted each other from time to time.

Between last September to March this year. Vestal has a record of 15 dates when she found Dax suffering injuries, and she was told that three of those dates coincide with footage of Jone’s alleged abuse, she said.

But Dax is only one of multiple kids who came home from school injured, as three families have now spoken out, detailing their experiences and demanding justice for their autistic children.

‘My son does not have the ability to tell me when someone is hurting him. My son does not have the ability that he was forced to watch someone hurting his friends,’ said Kevin Yarbrough, father of an 11-year-old severely autistic, non-verbal boy on Jones’s bus.

‘My son was abused by the people who were put into place specifically to protect him,’ he said in a trembling voice.

In one of the photos made available by the family’s lawyer, the child’s right ear can be seen bleeding after he got off the bus one day in October.

A month prior, the boy, who suffered life-threatening autism, had his toe broken and was taken to hospital, the parents said.

‘My husband and I have struggled to find words to adequately express how incredibly horrified and appalled we are,’ the third mother alleging Jones of abuse said.

Parents said sometimes autistic children could hurt themselves from time to time, and they all attributed the mysterious, unexplained injuries to accidents.’

‘He is a self-injurious child. We usually, unfortunately, make the assumption that he has done it to himself,’ Yarbrough said.

She added: ‘I feel betrayed. We fight so much with districts and schools and teachers to make sure the kids have everything with their IEP (individualized education program) they need.

‘I never considered the bus for a second because it seems so basic… We have this assumption they’re keeping our kids safe because that’s their duty. Now I feel like we’re going to question everyone forever.’

‘I’m sure a lot of people would be like, ‘Why would you put this video of your kid out there?’ If you don’t look at it, the words don’t encompass it,’ Vestal said.

‘If he had to live through it, the least everybody else could do is pay attention to it so that it doesn’t happen again.’

Beginning in around September, the three families noticed unexplained injuries on their kids including scratches, bruises, a lost tooth, a broken toe, a black eye, and other deep bruises on their bodies and feet, their attorney said in a statement.

They also observed significant shifts in their children’s behaviors and brought up their concerns to the school.

In an email to the Joshua School in January, Vestal asked about bruises on her son’s arm, neck and thigh.

‘We reviewed the video and there is nothing out of the ordinary that occurs during the ride home,’ Michelle Molina, the Littleton district’s transportation operations supervisor, wrote in an email.

According to the lawyer representing the families, the Joshua School raised its belief that abuse was occurring on the bus with Littleton Public Schools (LPS).

‘LPS looked at a single bus ride and determined there was nothing to be concerned about and provided no further monitoring, allowing months of uninterrupted abuse to continue,’ the statement reads.

After Jones was arrested this month, the Littleton Public Schools released a statement, saying Jones was hired in August after ‘satisfactory reference checks and after passing a thorough background check’.

‘She had very limited access to students during her employment with LPS. She has had no contact with students since March 19, the day her employment was terminated,’ the statement reads.