ANDERSON, Ind. (WXIN) — A 7-year-old girl is recovering after she was dragged down the street by her school bus in Anderson, Indiana, according to her family and local police.
Grace Brown described what she saw Friday morning as she watched her daughter Kah-Lise board the bus. She said Kah-Lise put one foot up on the first step, but the bus’s doors closed before she entered.
“The door started closing and she’s hopping until she gets swept under and drug the rest of the way,” Grace Brown recalled. “I can’t even look at a bus without seeing the picture of my daughter being dragged on the ground from it.”
Brown said she ran after the bus, screaming for it to stop, but the driver kept going. The bus eventually stopped approximately 30 feet down the street.
“She was hysterical, crying and shaking so bad,” Brown said of her daughter’s condition.
Pictures show Kah-Lise’s clothes ripped and torn, with her knee bloodied.
Brown said she is grateful her daughter’s injuries weren’t worse.
“I could’ve lost my baby, nobody really understands that,” Brown said. “She could’ve gone under that wheel. She could’ve bounced her head off the ground.”
Anderson Community Schools released a statement Monday, saying in part, “Since the time of the incident, we have been in close contact with the student’s mother, the bus driver, the Anderson Police Department, the Indiana State Police Department and the Department of Child Services.”
The district also said the bus driver won’t be permitted to drive while the investigation is underway.
“Why didn’t you look at your mirrors? Why didn’t you look behind you?” Brown said, questioning the bus driver’s actions. “Why didn’t you look at the door as you were closing it? Why didn’t you look?”
“I totally hate that this happened to my grandbaby, but she’s not the only child on the bus,” the girl’s grandmother, Keisha Williams, said. “It could’ve been another child.”
The Anderson Police Department along with Indiana State Police, the school district and the Department of Child Services are all conducting independent investigations.
