KATY, Texas – For the past three years, therapy has helped Madeleine Kammerer's son, who has autism, show progress, but she says in the past week those long years of therapy seem to have been undone.
“As a mom, that's hard to see knowing how far he has come. He is now going back to things like hitting himself,” Kammerer said.
She says her son’s progression has reverted because of what transpired inside a Katy Independent School District bus.
Kammerer said the bus’s camera captured a bus aide striking her son with her hand.
“She comes up and holds out his arms, and you hear her saying something to him, and then the next thing you know, he is screaming,” Kammerer said.
Kammerer said her son was riding on a special-needs bus.
Court documents detailed what was seen on the video showing that at some point, the bus aid walked to where Kammerer’s son was sitting and sat next to him. Words were exchanged between the two, and then the child raised his hand closer to the bus aide's face. The video shows the bus aide beginning to restrain his arm and hand moves toward the child's face.
Kammerer said the incident left her son with marks and scratches on his arm. Kammerer said the bus aide was never threatened by her son, who was already buckled into his seat.
“My son was 4 years old at the time. He was already in a five-point harness. She had no business going down and sitting with my child and restraining him unnecessarily while he was already being restrained,” Kammerer said.
KPRC reached out the bus aide for a comment, but she declined to give one. Court documents show the bus aide now faces an injury to a child charge.
KPRC has reached out to the district for a comment and has yet to hear back.
“These people are supposed to be people that know how to handle special needs. Their job is to make sure that my child got here safely, and they didn’t do that,” Kammerer said.