Ohio School District Investigates Bus Assault on Student

A video of the November 6 assault on a school bus carrying students to Mahoning Valley Community School in Youngstown spread widely on social media. It shows a boy repeatedly striking and kicking a 10th-grade girl before holding her in a chokehold. Other students can be heard laughing, then one tells him to stop.

The girl’s stepfather said she went to a hospital to have her injuries assessed. He said he learned the details of the incident on November 11, five days after it happened.

Both students attend the school through an arrangement with the Boardman Local School District, which provides transportation. The district apologized for not informing parents promptly, saying bus staff had alerted school administrators but had not adequately conveyed how serious the incident was. It said no student injuries were reported after the event and that it is reviewing its communication and transportation procedures.

The district said the driver could not stop immediately during the assault but pulled over shortly after it began. The bus aide has been placed on leave while the investigation proceeds. The girl’s stepfather criticized the aide for not intervening, saying an adult on the bus should have been watching over students rather than relying on a passenger’s phone recording.

Mahoning Valley Community School Superintendent Jennifer Merritt pushed back against claims that the school had ignored the incident. She said student privacy rules limit what schools can disclose about individual cases and disciplinary responses, and that silence on those details should not be taken as a lack of action.