Two Virginia Beach parents are suing Virginia Beach Public Schools after they said their child with Down syndrome was assaulted and improperly restrained on a school bus last year.
“It’s awful to know that’s the environment that our children are being placed in to go to school each day,” Antonio Mauro, the father of Giovanni Mauro, said.
Mauro said his nine-year-old son is a student at Virginia Beach Public Schools who is nonverbal and has Down syndrome.
Crystal GordonBack on Feb. 23, 2023, Mauro said he requested to look at camera footage from inside his son’s bus after he was told his child was misbehaving.
“It was traumatizing we couldn’t even watch them [the videos],” Mauro said.
According to a now-filed federal lawsuit against the school system, a former bus aide named Lester Langhorne put his hands on Mauro’s son.
The suit claims based on the bus footage, Langhorne forcibly shoved Giovanni into his seat and at one point grabbed him by the throat for no reason.