ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A local bus driver has been fired after parents and students say he encouraged a boxing match between 5th graders.

“He pulled over, he got up out the seat, standing on the aisle and said, okay… who wants to fight?” says Je’leone Powell Jr., a 5th grader at Exploration Charter School.

Je’leone says his bus driver encouraged another child to fight him.

“He punched me and I hit him back and we started fighting,” he recalls. 

But it didn’t stop there.

“The bus driver wasn’t happy with the way the fight turned out so he like, no, no, no,  who else wants to fight him? So then another boy says… I’ll do it,” says Diamond Facen, Je’leone’s mother.

A second round, with a different student.

“When my son’s mouth started bleeding, he didn’t give him a tissue, he did turn around and go back and get in his seat,” Facen says.

Facen learned about the situation when Je’leone got off the bus with a bloody lip. His sister rides the same bus and saw the incident which prompted Facen to call the principal and Ontario Bus Company right away.

A supervisor for Ontario Bus pulled the video from the bus’s camera.

“They saw what they needed to see in order to fire him and what they saw, matches what my son said as well as the other kids they interviewed on the bus,” Facen says. 

News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke spoke directly with the CEO of Ontario Bus Company. He says the audio on the bus camera wasn’t working properly at the time of this incident so, he can’t hear whether the driver was indeed egging on the children to fight. But he does say the bus was pulled over while the fighting was happening and the driver was in the aisle watching but not breaking it up. According to the CEO, the driver never alerted dispatch to a fight on the bus or said anything about it when he returned to base.

“I’m not going to take this lightly because he didn’t just wake up and say, “I’m going to have some kids fight today”–maybe there’s other kids that have experienced this with him,” Facen says.

In a statement, the Executive Director of Exploration Charter School says although the incident did not happen on school property, “We take instances such as this very seriously and, though we cannot confirm nor deny the details of what transpired, we are working closely with those involved and Ontario Bus to not only investigate the incident but ensure that protective measures are implemented to reduce the likelihood of anything similar occurring in the future. For confidentiality reasons, we are unable to disclose further details but can ensure the community that Exploration’s top priority is maintaining a safe environment for our students and staff to succeed at all times. Here at Exploration, our students know that violence and bullying in any form is unacceptable.”

In an email shared with News10NBC, the RCSD Transportation Director told the family: 

“I met you today when I was at Ontario Bus Company, I stayed there and viewed the video of the incident you told me about. It did happen, I can confirm the driver was fired. If you would like to press charges, please contact the police.”

That’s exactly what Facen has done.

“He’s not going to be just put on a different route to do it to more kids, he just not going to get fired and be able to go work for First Student, no, he don’t need to work for nothing that got something to do with kids, he’s toxic,” Facen says.

The Ontario Bus CEO says the driver started working for the company at the start of this school year, he has been fired and Ontario will cooperate with any outside investigations.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for RCSD tells News10NBC:

“We are aware of this situation and have been in communication with Ontario Bus Company. Student safety is a top priority. The employee has been terminated, and we are working collaboratively with them to ensure the sound issues are resolved.”

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