SALEM, Conn. — A school bus driver in Salem was arrested after an alleged physical incident with a student.
Bergeline Mesidor, 47, is facing charges stemming from an incident between her and a 9-year-old boy on the school bus in January, during which she allegedly grabbed the student by the back of the neck and pulled him onto the floor.
According to an affidavit, state police received a call from the victim’s parents, who said a worker at the daycare her son attends informed her that he and some other children on the bus complained about the driver. The worker told the parents that the daycare was going to make a formal complaint to the Department of Children and Family Services.
The child’s mother said she was told that the daycare would also launch an investigation into the matter.
The boy told his mother that he and a friend were playing by hitting each other’s hat when the bus driver “suddenly grabbed [him] by his book bag, pulled him out [of] the seat, dragged him along the floor toward the front of the bus, then sat him down in a different seat,” the affidavit said.
Other students on the bus who spoke with police gave a similar picture of the incident.
Police spoke with Mesidor, whose account of the incident was different.
According to the affidavit, Mesidor said the student loaded onto the bus as usual and sat by himself in the rear of the bus. She said she had to walk to the back of the bus because two other students needed to be separated.
Mesidor told police that she told the student who made the complaint to go to the front of the bus because “his regular behavior that causes safety concerns.” She said that the child, at times, will stand up from the seat facing backward while she is driving.
Mesidor claims the student moved to the front of the bus and was “quiet the rest of the trip.”
“I did not have any contact with him at all other than verbal,” she told police, adding that she was shocked to hear about the reported allegations by her boss after the complaint was made.
“This incident is a false (sic) I have never physically moved a student,” she told police, according to the affidavit.
Police said they reviewed the footage from the surveillance video on the bus, but it only showed the drive from the school to daycare without incident. Surveillance video from outside of the school where the student was picked up did not match Mesidor’s story to police, the affidavit said.
Mesidor, of Norwich, was arrested and charged with breach of peace and risk of injury to a minor.
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