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Child endangerment charges dismissed against local bus driver accused of hitting student

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — “There’s so much to it that nobody knows,” said Bart Lazare. “Nobody knows the history.”

Leaving court on Wednesday, attorney Blaine Jones did not want his client, Barbara Garland, to speak. But Garland’s fiancé, Bart Lazare, spoke for her, saying there was a history with this student.

“All the truth will come out,” said Lazare. “The tape from the bus and the witnesses. Everything like her ex-monitor got thrashed in the bus and bite marks and everything else. What she did. She didn’t have much of a choice.”

Back in September, Garland was accused of “smacking” a child with special needs. According to the criminal complaint, Garland was trying to secure the student in a harness on the bus at Mon Valley, which is described as a school for students with special needs between the ages of 5 to 21 years old.

“She had to put the harness on him, but the school knows about it so why didn’t they do something about it,” said Lazare. “The bus company now says you can’t touch the kid after the fact. She had no training in that.”

While being questioned about what happened, Garland told an officer she knew this student was going to try to bite or pinch her. She said she pulled her arm away, grabbed his wrists and told him to “stop.”

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The criminal complaint mentions a video of the incident that matches up with a witness’s story of what happened. That video has not been shown in court yet, but detectives on the case said you can hear the child screaming “ow,” and Garland responding, “you’re darn right, ow.”

“You’re talking about a lady who’s 79 years old who has never ever been in trouble,” said Jones. “Has no record. We’re happy. For this type of resolution at this early stage is really a good thing.”

Magisterial District Judge Michael Thatcher dismissed the child endangerment charge and held the simple assault charge for the Pennsylvania Courts of Common Pleas.

Garland’s formal arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 23.

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