**EDITOR’S NOTE: The video attached to this article depicts violence against a child. Viewer discretion is advised.**
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A former Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) bus attendant is facing multiple child abuse charges after she’s been accused of hitting students on a bus. Newly obtained video showed the incidents that took place.
One former APS employee was charged after she was seen on video hitting a special needs student on several different occasions.
Back in September, APS Special Education Diagnostic Center employees reportedly alerted the district after a student came in with fresh scratch marks on the back of their neck. According to police, the bus attendant, Debbie Chavira, was seen on video striking the student on five different days, usually after the student began tapping on the bus wall.
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In the police criminal complaint, incidents documented by the video cameras on the bus showed Chavira hitting the student with a bus sign, hitting them with her hand and even pulling on the harness straps the student was secured within his seat. In one instance, police said, Chavira can be seen raising her hand threatening to hit the child, and the child flinching out of fear. The district spoke to us back in October after Chavira’s arrest.