Two Wisconsin parents are speaking out after their 10-year-old daughter with special needs reportedly came home from school covered in bruises that were caused by another student biting her.
Lillian Waldron attends Langlade Elementary School and her mother, Lynn Waldron-Moehle, told WBAY that she’s developmentally disabled and nonverbal. She reportedly gave her daughter a bath after she came home from school Monday, hysterically crying and holding her arm.
“She loves baths and that’s soothing to her, so I brought her home, and I was getting her ready for the bath and I took her sweatshirt off and that’s when I noticed the major bruising on her upper arm,” Waldron-Moehle recalled.
The girl’s father, Chad Waldron, said all the children on Lily’s bus are also special needs. He told WBAY that he finds it hard to believe that the driver didn’t hear anything as his daughter sits right behind them.
“She can’t tell them to stop, she couldn’t get away, because she’s in a five-point harness car seat. She just had to sit there and take it and the bus driver wasn’t stopping,” her mother added.
Green Bay police revealed that the girl’s mother reported the incident and that they’re in the process of reviewing video from the school bus. Lily’s mother told the news outlet that the school principal has viewed surveillance footage from Monday.
“He said it was gruesome and horrifying to look at, and that the girl was brutally biting my daughter’s arm,” she stated.
Moreover, Green Bay Schools Superintendent Michelle Langenfeld told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that they’re also investigating the incident and working with Lamers Bus Lines “to ensure appropriate processes and procedures are in place to prevent this from occurring in the future.”
In the meantime, the bus driver on duty during Monday’s episode was removed from all of the school district’s routes and is permanently barred from driving for the district, Langenfeld said.
The parents told WBAY that this isn’t the first issue the 10-year-old has had on the bus. Last year, they suspected that a boy on the bus had completely undressed her and inappropriately touched her.
In light on Monday’s incident, Lily will be riding to and from school alone on a van accompanied by two adults. Her parents said it’s the only way they can ensure their daughter’s safety.
“I would like to see this not ever happen to another child,”Waldron-Moehle said. “No other child needs to go through what Lilly went through.”
[Featured image: Lily Waldron/WBAY video screengrab]
