SUGAR LAND, Texas (KTRK) — A Fort Bend ISD bus driver says he was violently assaulted by two parents along his afternoon route, leaving him bloodied and hospitalized.
The driver, Denny John, and his attorney contacted ABC13 out of concern that only one of the two alleged assailants had been charged. John says he was simply following district policy when the attack happened in front of students.
John, a substitute driver who has worked for the district for three years, says the incident occurred on October 9 during his second route of the day, picking up children from Ferndell Henry Elementary School. According to John, the district’s route-tracking app malfunctioned after he entered the Caldwell Ranch neighborhood, leaving him unsure of the next stop.
Per district policy, he began returning to the school with the students so staff could contact parents. That’s when he says two men, described as “irate” in court documents, boarded the bus and confronted him.
“They came onto the bus and requested all the children,” John said. “I requested ID, and when I did, they brutally attacked me. My eyebrow, my lip. I thought they broke my jaw. I have a concussion.”
John says the men repeatedly punched him as students watched. Photos of his injuries, too graphic for television, show him battered and bloodied in the hours after the attack.
Fort Bend County ISD police arrested Jeffrey Valdez, who now faces a charge of aggravated assault of a public servant. The second man, however, fled the scene and has not been identified.
“Both people need to be accounted for,” John said.
John’s attorney, Joe Mathew, is urging the district to release video from the numerous cameras inside the bus. Fort Bend ISD said only that the matter remains under investigation. The school’s principal has notified parents, including those whose children witnessed the brutal attack.
“They not only endangered Denny John,” Mathew said, “but also endangered those little souls and traumatized them.”
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