New video given to WSLS on Thursday, claims to show a second instance where a 11-year-old boy with autism was physically abused by former Bedford County Schools employees.
WSLS and our newspaper partners the Richmond Times-Dispatch, originally reported on Wednesday about a $20 million lawsuit filed against Bedford County Schools and two former employees.
The lawsuit claims that in September of 2009, a Bedford County bus driver and special needs adult aide, repeatedly hit and abused 11-year-old Timothy Kilpatrick.
The initial report Wednesday, included surveillance video from a Bedford County school bus given to the Times-Dispatch by the attorney representing the Kilpatrick family, Brent Brown.
That video appears to show one adult woman repeatedly hitting Kilpatrick with a flyswatter, then later with her fists. It also shows a second adult woman walk back from the front of the bus, and smack Kilpatrick hard on the head and across the face.
Thursday, Brown gave WSLS a second school bus surveillance video that he obtained from the Lynchburg Police Department for use in the lawsuit.
Brown claims the second tape shows the aide and bus driver physically abusing Kilpatrick again, and this time spraying Kilpatrick with an aerosol chemical.
At one point in the second video, you can hear Timothy screaming and crying as he is it. Timothy can also be seen fighting back. Comments from other people on the bus can also be heard.
"Horrifying," Brown said. "When we entrust our children to a school system, we expect them to be taken care of and to be protected from others. And we especially don't expect them to be harmed and injured by those who are supposed to be the protectors."
However, Brown says the worst part about this video is how long the parents claim the abuse went on. Kilpatrick's parents say the abuse dated back to as early as November of 2008.
"Both the child's father and the child's case worker were contacting the school system asking for an investigation and asking that the issues involving injuries that were seen on the child when the child came off be addressed. That's what's really shocking. This did not have to happen," said Brown.
He hopes it never happens to another child again.
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