Mom: Pittsburgh School Bus Driver Choked Son During Fight

The mother of a Pittsburgh Public Schools student is accusing a school bus driver of grabbing her son by the neck and choking him while on the way to school Friday.

The school district, however, said that its police investigated the incident and found the bus driver did nothing wrong. School police said the driver was only restraining the boy.

Barbara Saunders, the Miller Elementary School student’s mother, claimed her son, Nasan Anderson, 11, stepped in when her 7-year-old daughter got into a fight with a fourth-grade student on the bus.

“I was scared. I didn't know what to do, especially when the school calls you and tells you that your child was being choked,” Saunders said.

She said the bus driver grabbed her son by the neck, making it difficult for him to breathe. She said the driver then threw her son into another seat.

“I was defending my little sister and the bus driver just picked me up … and choked me,” Anderson told Channel 11 News.

"You don't restrain somebody by choking him," Saunders said.

The school district, in a statement, said the allegations against the bus driver were unfounded. The district said that Anderson was assaulting other students on the bus.

The district said Anderson was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, so it appeared to the crossing guard who called 911 that the bus driver had the boy by the neck when the driver was only restraining the boy.

“First of all, a bus driver is not trained to deal with those kinds of situations. He's trained to drive the bus,” Pittsburgh Schools Police Chief Robert Fadzen said. “The witnesses' testimony was he was holding him by the chest to get the little kids off the bus.”

After the school police investigation and witness accounts, it was determined the driver was just restraining the student, the district said. The case was handed over to Pittsburgh police.

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