Video released Thursday from a camera mounted inside a Higley Unified School District bus shows the bus driver engaging in a physical confrontation with a teenage girl.
The incident happened February 15, when 54-year-old Kim Sullivan was driving students home from Williams Field High School in Gilbert.
The video shows Sullivan stopping the bus after repeatedly warning 15-year-old Samantha Taylor to sit back in her seat and stop touching the boy in front of her.
After stopping the bus, Sullivan walked back toward Taylor's seat and asked her why she was on the bus, then told her to find another way to get to and from school.
Taylor tried to exit the bus; Sullivan tried to push her back into her seat.
Taylor repeatedly yelled at Sullivan to "stop touching me" and called her mother on her cell phone.
Sullivan said she was calling police.
The altercation escalated when Taylor handed Sullivan her phone to speak with her mother, and Sullivan tossed the phone aside.
Taylor then began screaming at Sullivan, "You punched me!" though the alleged blow was not visible on the video.
Another student trying to exit the bus, 14-year-old Cassandra Schlosser, told her mother on her cell phone that the bus driver was "like about to get in a fistfight with Sammy."
About a minute later, the confrontation turned into a full-blown physical fight when Taylor moved forward to grab her phone and Sullivan tried to push her back.
The laughs and jeers of the other students on the bus turned to gasps of shock that faded to silence as Taylor and Sullivan continued to grapple with each other. Though the two moved forward and out of range of the camera's lens, the sound of a blow being struck is clearly heard on the video.
The two moved back into view of the camera with Sullivan pulling Taylor's hair. At the same moment, Sullivan's 16-year-old daughter came running forward, screaming at Taylor to get off her mother. She grabbed two handfuls of Taylor's hair and tried to pull the girl off Sullivan.
She then told Sullivan to get off of Taylor, but continued to pull Taylor's hair in her attempts to wrestle Taylor away from her mother.
Schlosser then joined the melee, yelling at the Sullivan to get off of Taylor, a few seconds before a male student came forward and knocked Sullivan's daughter away from Taylor.
The fight continued for about another minute, ending when a tearful Taylor joined the rest of the students as they exited the bus through an emergency exit door on the side of the vehicle.
Sullivan, also in tears, then radioed her dispatcher, asking, "Where is my help that I asked for?"
A school district official told the East Valley Tribune that a school supervisor was on the way to the bus but was stuck in traffic. The official said one student called police while the incident unfolded, but the students had left the bus by the time officers arrived.
When a female student approached Sullivan after the brawl to ask if she was OK, Sullivan responded, "Yes... it's all on the tape."
On Friday, the Gilbert Police Department concluded their investigation. The police report will be forwarded to the Maricopa County Attorney's office requesting the following charged to be filed: Kim Sullivan with aggravated assault (intentional touching of a child 15 and under) and disorderly conduct; Taylor with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct; and Schlosser and Erin Sullivan with disorderly conduct.
The school district also conducted an administrative investigation in conjunction with police.
On Wednesday, the district sent a letter home to parents informing them of the incident, the Tribune reported.
Taylor, Schlosser and Sullivan's daughter were suspended, and Sullivan was placed on paid leave, according to the Tribune.
Sullivan has worked as a bus driver for the district since last June and has driven buses elsewhere before, the Tribune reported. The Higley School District is not aware of any complaints against the driver, a district official told the newspaper
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