Horrific surveillance video from a school bus in suburban Utah shows the driver appear to intentionally close the door on a biracial student as he was exiting the vehicle, trapping his backpack inside the bus while leaving him dangling outside before dragging him about 175 feet.
The incident took place on February 4 of this year in front of West Point Junior High School in Davis County, Utah.
The 14-year-old boy, a seventh grader at the school, was one of the students being taken to class that morning, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
As the bus pulled into the school’s front driveway at 7:59am, the boy is seen filing out of the bus with his classmates.
A 14-year-old biracial boy (wearing the red backpack in the image above) was dragged by a school bus in front of his junior high school in suburban Utah this past February
The boy was stepping off the bus in front of West Point Junior High School in Davis County on February 4
As the boy was about to get off the bus, the driver appeared to intentionally shut the door on him, trapping his backpack and leaving his body dangling on the outside
The driver then proceeded to hit the gas and drive the bus about 175 feet, dragging the boy, who was dangerously close to the front right wheel
But when the boy reaches the last step before exiting the bus, the driver, John Naisbitt, apparently places his hand on a lever used to open and close the door.
The door shuts with the boy’s backpack on the inside of the bus and the boy’s body dangling outside, dangerously close to the bus’s front right tire.
A line of about five students is standing behind the boy waiting to leave when the door shuts on him.
The students yell for the driver to stop, but the bus keeps going for close to 20 seconds.
The boy’s mother, Brenda Mayes, filed a lawsuit against the school district and the driver, Naisbitt, on behalf of her son, who is not named.
Mayes says that Naisbitt was acting out of racial hatred toward her son.
She also alleges that the school district failed to discipline the driver even though there had been previous complaints about her behavior.
John Naisbitt (above), the driver of the bus, denied accusations he was racist, saying: ‘Look at my dog. He’s as black as could be’
The image above provided by the lawyer for the boy’s mother shows where she claims her son was initially dropped off (bottom) and the point to which he was dragged by the bus (top)
Naisbitt is alleged to have closed the school bus door on two other biracial boys.
The lawsuit claims Naisbitt called students ‘stupid’ and ‘idiots’. On one occasion, Naisbitt failed to stop a white girl from assaulting a younger Asian girl, the lawsuit alleges.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Naisbitt retired from his job as a bus driver.
Mayes obtained the video from the Davis School District, which is also named in the lawsuit, and disseminated it to the news media.
‘I couldn’t even comprehend how it could happen,’ Mayes told reporters in Utah on Tuesday during a news conference at her lawyer’s office.
‘I was blown away. I was angry.
‘I was glad he didn’t kill him…I was glad he didn’t go under the wheel.’
Mayes spoke as her 14-year-old son and his younger brother stood in the back of the room.
‘The driver knew what he was doing,’ the boy’s mother said.
Mayes was outraged that the school district did not fire Naisbitt after the alleged assault against her son.
‘Something failed,’ Mayes said.
The boy’s mother, Brenda Mayes, filed a lawsuit against Naisbitt and the Davis School District alleging that the incident was part of a pattern of racist behavior and bullying
‘They have a responsibility when I send [my kids] off to school, they have a responsibility to make sure they are safe.’
Naisbitt denied that he was a racist, telling KSTU-TV: ‘Look at my dog. He’s as black as could be.’
He told the TV station that he drove the bus forward because there were eight other buses behind his.
Naisbitt claims that the lawsuit is the family’s way of retaliating against him after he disciplined the boy’s brother.
‘I didn’t see him in there,’ Naisbitt said. ‘If I had, I would have stopped.’
In a statement, the school district said: ‘The Davis School District takes any claims of racial discrimination seriously and does not tolerate any form of racial discrimination in our schools.’
The lawsuit is demanding unspecified damages.