Couple seek changes to bus supervision, plus video

Their son, 6, was attacked last week

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When their 6-year-old son made his way down the steps to get off the school bus on the second day of school last week, Mark and Kathy DiMeglio knew something was wrong.

Roman’s face was red and puffy with a scratch on one cheek, and he was crying.

He told them he had been beaten up during the ride home from Allison Park Elementary School .

The DiMeglios, of Washington, asked the bus driver and the other adult riding the bus to help supervise the children what happened.

“They both said they didn’t see or hear anything,” Mr. DiMeglio said.

They whisked the kindergarten student to a nearby emergency room, where Mr. DiMeglio said doctors observed bruises and testicular trauma on the boy.

His parents’ outrage eventually prompted them to post about their son’s ordeal on Facebook on Tuesday, where it has now been shared thousands of times. And they are going to hire an attorney to subpoena the video of the incident and demand the school district make changes to how children on the buses are supervised.

Roman isn’t currently attending the school and is nervous to go back.

“We felt that for our son, we needed to stand up to this and we needed to get the story,” Mr. DiMeglio said.

He and his wife watched the video of the incident shortly after it happened with the school’s assistant principal. The assistant principal acknowledged that “it was difficult to watch” and that Roman was the victim of “an act of violence.” But when Mr. DiMeglio requested a copy of the video, he was told that the solicitor for Chartiers-Houston School District recommended against releasing it to him.

“We want our tape,” he said this week. “We want there to be changes made at the school. We want the bus driver and the rider to get some sort of reprimand. And we want an apology from the school.”

In the video, Mr. DiMeglio said one student can be seen grabbing his son by the hair and holding him down while another hits him

behind a seat, which Mr. DiMeglio said was only four rows from the front of the bus. Though there is no audio with the clip, other students can be seen turning around and reacting to the sounds of the scuffle, he said.

He, his wife and Roman each made separate statements to the Chartiers Township police, who are investigating, Mr. DiMeglio said.

The Washington County district attorney also has viewed the video, a spokeswoman said before declining to comment further.

Chartiers-Houston superintendent John George could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mr. DiMeglio insists he isn’t asking for charges to be filed against the children who bullied his son.

They each received onehour detentions from the school administration and they and their parents each apologized to Roman and his parents, he said. He trusts their parents to handle the situation.

They also aren’t asking that the bus driver and the other adult be fired, but reprimanded.

And Mr. DiMeglio wants a copy of the surveillance video that shows his son being attacked on the school bus for his own records.

“It’s not about money, it’s about justice and it’s about change,” Mr. DiMeglio said. “The school is actually bullying us, is what’s happening.”