Mother sues the Beaufort County School District after son injured in 2021 assault on bus

The mother of a Lady’s Island Middle School student has filed a lawsuit against the Beaufort County School District after alleging it was negligent in responding to a November 2021 incident in which her son was attacked on the school bus.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, says the woman’s son, who was under 14 years old at the time of the assault, was hit repeatedly by several other students. The other students who attacked the boy, named in the filing only as M.W., hit him in the face, head and abdomen.

The mother’s lawyer alleges the bus driver “failed to intervene or take action to protect M.W.,” resulting in his physical, mental and emotional damage. The lawsuit also claims the driver and the school district were negligent in the driver’s training.

The fight took place on the bus on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at the Penn Center around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2021, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. M.W. had “a black eye and a knot” on his face following the assault. M.W.’s mother told police that someone on the school bus paid another student, another middle schooler, to slap her son in the face.

M.W. was able to get out of the way of the first swing, but was hit in the face when the student swung a second time. Another student, from Beaufort High School, allegedly jumped in and punched M.W. “while he was getting beat up by” the first student.

The driver, M.W.’s mother told police, pulled over at the Penn Center, to stop the fighting. M.W. told police in the report that the driver threatened to call police after stopping the bus but “he never did.” Another student who witnessed the fight said there were three fights on the bus that day and that the driver “called it in but nothing was done about it.”

None of the students involved were petitioned to Family Court by police at the time of the incident because of their “conflicting stories,” police said in the report.

Per policy, the Beaufort County School District does not comment on pending litigation, said Candace Bruder, a school spokesperson. Wendy Cartledge, the school district’s attorney, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Robert Ferguson Jr. and Katherine Ferguson, attorneys for M.W.’s mother, could not immediately be reached for comment.