Special Needs Student In Serious Condition After Falling From Bus
BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ/SUN) A 6-year-old special needs student is in serious condition after he fell out of the back of a moving school bus Wednesday afternoon, city schools and Baltimore County police said Thursday.
Baltimore County paramedics responded to the incident shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, where they found the injured boy after he fell off a bus that was taking him to his West Baltimore home from a Baltimore County special education school.
The student was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital Pediatrics Center, where he remains in serious condition, according to Lt. Rob McCullough, spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department.
The student was being taken to the city from The Villa Maria at St. Vincent's School, a Catholic special education school in Timonium that serves grades pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.
The bus was traveling in the area of Pot Spring Road and Girdwood Road when the student got out of his seat and began an altercation with another child on the bus, McCullough said.
One of the two adult aides on the bus broke up the altercation, and the student tried unsuccessfully to leave out of the front door of the bus.
He then ran to the back of the bus, opened the rear door and fell onto the road, McCullough said.
The boy is a city school student, but the city partners with county schools to serve students with special needs, school officials said. The bus is operated by a city schools contractor, MR Hopkins Transportation Services Inc. Attempts to reach the company were unsuccessful.
The school system said it was working with Baltimore County police to investigate.
"City Schools is deeply saddened that one of our students was seriously injured while being transported home," the school system said in a statement. "We extend our support to the family, students and school community whom this tragedy touches most closely."