Arrest is made in latest assault on a school bus

School officials are once again confronted with violent behavior by a group of youths at the corner of Branch Avenue and Hawkins Street.

01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, January 24, 2006
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Six students attempted to force their way onto a Bishop Middle School bus on Thursday afternoon, the latest of three similar incidents over two weeks.

The incident Thursday occurred one block from Hopkins Middle School, at the intersection of Branch Avenue and Hawkins Street, where the previous incidents had also taken place.

According to a school spokeswoman, six Hopkins students approached the bus as it was taking students home and began pelting it with rocks. A Hopkins Middle School teacher pulled alongside in her car and told the students to go home. She later identified all six students to the police.

Meanwhile, the bus driver called the police. Officers arrested one youth and charged him with disorderly conduct.The police are continuing to investigate the incident; more charges are expected.
School spokeswoman Maria Tocco said the students opened the rear emergency door but were unable to get onto the bus. No one was injured.

Tocco said that one of the six students had been involved in the first bus incident, on Jan. 9. On that day, several students stopped and boarded a bus carrying students from Nathanael Greene Middle School. As the bus drove down Branch Avenue, the youths opened the emergency door, hit a middle school child and fled.

The next day, a large group of teenagers surrounded the same bus, also on Branch Avenue, and began pounding on it as the bus was driving children home to the East Side.

One of the students involved in the bus boarding incident has been expelled and sent to an alternative school, according to Andre Thibeault, director of school operations.

At last night's School Board meeting, School Supt. Donnie Evans described what school officials were doing to curb the violence. Bus monitors have been assigned to both buses and the police have assigned additional patrol officers, including undercover officers, to the neighborhood.

"The School Department is taking this very seriously," Evans said. "We're working hand-in-hand with the police."
Evans said he drove to the intersection last week and waited while buses carried students home from Hopkins Middle School. He also said that he has asked the principal and the assistant principal of Hopkins to be more visible at that corner after school.

"We intend to be proactive," he said, adding that school officials would speak with parents and students at the middle schools in question. He did not specify what school officials have planned for those meetings.

Evans also said that the School Department was looking at other options, including altering bus routes and changing school start and end times.

Meanwhile, the schools are making an effort to keep parents informed. On Friday, the principal of Bishop Middle School sent a phone message to all parents, explaining what had happened and what the School Department was doing about it.
lborg@projo.com / (401) 277-7823

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