Tennessee woman Kela Hand was arrested last month after forcing her way onto a school bus and spending more than four minutes verbally and physically assaulting a 7-year-old boy she believed smacked her stepdaughter. The irony of how ridiculous it is to punish a child for being violent by being even more violent was apparently lost on her.
According to The Leaf-Chronicle, Kela’s stepdaughter was hit in the mouth while waiting at a school bus stop. Outraged to hear about the incident, both Kela and her partner (the girl’s mother), boarded the school bus to confront the boy who allegedly struck their daughter.
Leading the assault, Kela is heard in an on-bus video telling the second-grader she is going to “f**k him up.” Reacting as you’d expect a 7-year-old to, the scared boy said he would tell his mom. Kela yelled back, “Go ahead. I will f**k her up too!”
Four other parents pushed their ways past the driver to check on their own children. The bus driver initially radioed for help, but then tried to manage the situation on her own. The parents were eventually pushed off the bus and the students continued on to school.
The elementary school principal later called Monica Rogers, the mother of the boy who was assaulted.
“The principal told me there was an incident on the bus… The parent boarded the bus, cursed out the kids and pinpointed my son, thinking he was the one who hit her daughter,” Monica said. “He pulled him by his arm out of the seat and said you are going to get off this bus. She grabbed his arm and proceeded to the front of the bus with him. There was another student by the stairs who told her he didn’t do it.”
She said her son has epilepsy and the attack could have triggered a seizure.
“If they would’ve yelled, OK, but to put your hands on him? I don’t grab my son like that, and they shouldn’t have either,” she said of Kela. She added the bus driver should be punished for allowing the situation to get so out of hand. “She stood there watching instead of being on dispatch telling them there was parent on the bus, yelling and cussing and screaming. She didn’t make it sound urgent that the police needed to be called.”
Police eventually responded to the elementary school and conducted an investigation. Kela was arrested and charged with two counts of assault and one count of disorderly conduct. She is also prohibited from entering school property. The bus driver has been reassigned to the food services department.
