Mother claims middle school child assaulted by high schooler on Brunswick County school bus

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C. (WWAY) — The mother of a middle school student in Brunswick County is speaking out after she says her son was assaulted by a high school student during a bus ride home.

The woman, who asked to be identified only as Sarah, said the incident happened after school on March 25th, following dismissal from Leland Middle School.

“I was appalled,” she said in an interview, adding that her son was “visibly upset” when he arrived home.

Sarah alleges her son was assaulted by a student who attends North Brunswick High School. The two schools share a bus route, where middle and high school students ride together.

She described what she called ongoing seating issues on the bus, saying younger students often struggle to find seats in the afternoon.

“There is a known seating issue on the bus where, repeatedly middle school students cannot find seating,” she said. “Many of the seats are taken, there’s feet up, bookbags blocking the seat, no one is readily giving up their seat.”

According to Sarah, her son initially got off the bus to seek help from a school administrator after seeing there were not enough available seats. She said an administrator then boarded the bus and directed her son and two other sixth-grade students to sit in the back row.

“On that afternoon ride home, that is when my son was assaulted,” she said.

A spokesperson for Brunswick County Schools, Ben Strauss, confirmed the district is aware of the incident and is investigating.

According to the district’s bus driver handbook, each student is assigned a seat, and drivers are expected to maintain a seating chart. Strauss also said the district separates middle and high school students on buses.

However, Sarah claims those policies are not consistently enforced.

“My student has woken autonomously every morning and put himself on the bus and never missed it, and not once has there been a seating chart or seating implementation,” she said.

In response, she has drafted a proposed policy that would separate students by age.

“Older students are seated in the back if they’re in high school and younger students in middle school should sit near the front. I think that structure solves two problems,” she said. “It ensures that when the school bus pulls into the middle school in the afternoon, it can visibly see that there’s enough seats available … and it also puts those most vulnerable younger students up front so that the bus driver can see and hear them better.”

Sarah said she plans to present her proposal and concerns at the next Brunswick County Board of Education meeting on April 14.

The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it has investigated the incident. Because the case involves juveniles, a spokesperson said no additional information can be released.