Mother of abused Fairfield teen sues ed board, bus firm

BRIDGEPORT — The mother of a teenager with autism who is non-verbal and who was repeatedly abused on the school bus by the bus monitor has filed suit against the Fairfield Board of Education and the bus company.

The monitor last February pleaded guilty to multiple charges and received a suspended five-year term and three years of probation.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court, seeks unspecified monetary damages against the school board, the town of Fairfield and Connecticut Transportation Solutions for injuries the teen suffered and, the suit states, will continue to suffer for the rest of his life as a result of the abuse.

“This is a very upsetting and frustrating case because it was so preventable,” said the mother’s lawyer, Cindy Robinson. “Parents have to be able to put their children on the school bus with the utmost confidence that they will be safe — especially in a case such as ours where our young client is non-verbal. The bus company and school had an obligation and duty to monitor and train the school van monitors. But even after they were alerted to suspicious activity on the school van, they failed to secure and review surveillance video which captured the abuse on the school van.”

Andrea Clark, spokesperson for the Fairfield school system, said they do not comment on pending litigation.

“At Connecticut Transportation Solutions, nothing is more important to us than the safety and wellbeing of the children we transport to school each day, and we take seriously the trust that parents place in us,” said President Chet Doheny. He declined comment on the lawsuit.

Last February, the bus monitor, 59-year-old Joseph Jean-Felix, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty to risk of injury to a child, thirddegree assault and firstdegree unlawful restraint in the case.

During his sentencing, Jean-Felix, who was fired by Connecticut Transportation Solution following his arrest, tearfully blamed the bus company for failing to properly train him on dealing with severely handicapped students.

In December 2018, the parents of the 15-year-old boy, who is unable to speak, complained to Fairfield police that their son had come home from school with bruising and red marks on his wrists and arms, according to JeanFelix’s arrest warrant affidavit. The affidavit said school officials had not seen the injuries on the boy while he was in school.

Despite repeated complaints from the parents, the suit states, school and bus company officials did not review video from the bus surveillance cameras. It was not until the parents filed a complaint with police that police secured the video.

Police watched video from the bus and saw Jean-Felix take a metal tie used to bind the boy’s harness to the seat and bind the boy’s forearm to the seat. Jean-Felix then repeatedly hit the boy’s hand with another tie, the affidavit states.

In another video from the bus, the affidavit states that Jean-Felix is seen repeatedly striking the boy’s bare foot with a metal tie.

And in a third video, Jean-Felix is seen securing the boy’s hand to the seat and bending back the boy’s fingers.

Jean-Felix, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, couldn’t be reached for comment and has not hired a lawyer to represent him.