From WLEX -
A Whitley County woman is asking for a public apology from the school district after she says her mother, a long-time bus monitor, was taken to the hospital after being attacked by a student on the bus.
On Wednesday September 25, 2019, a teenage student allegedly shoved and punched 45-year-old Betty Lee Sutton on the school bus.
"My mom says she don't remember anything, she don't even remember him hitting her...she was just ...out," Sutton's daughter, Caitlin Ballew, told LEX 18's Mike Valente.
Ballew said her mother has been a bus monitor for Whitley County Schools on and off for at least two decades. Sutton has dealt with her fair share of rowdy kids, but she'd never experienced something like this.
"When I got the hospital, she was so distraught, she was trying to register she couldn't even remember her phone number, she had been hit so hard," said Ballew.
Ballew tells LEX 18 that the superintendent did contact the family to check on Sutton, and officials apparently reached out about worker's comp. LEX 18 made several attempts to reach out to the district, but we did not get a response.
When LEX 18 reached out to the Whitley County Sheriff's Department, the person who answered the phone said they were aware of the incident, bur declined to comment on it since it involved a juvenile.
Moving forward, Sutton's family wants the board to publicly acknowledge what happened.