.@repkevinhern@SenMullin@senatorlankford Medicaid is a lifeline! People with disabilities rely on Medicaid services to support them in their daily lives. But about 711k people are waiting for Medicaid services. We need MORE funding, not less. #ProtectMedicaid and save lives!
JUST IN: Video of Littleton bus aide punching nonverbal 10-year-old autistic student has been released.
A Littleton school bus assistant repeatedly abused at least two severely disabled boys during trips to and from a school for kids with autism and developmental disabilities, police said, and they fear there could be additional victims.
Kiarra Jones, 29, has been charged with a low-level felony on assault charges and has posted a bond at the Arapahoe County Jail.
Police said in her seven-month tenure as an assistant on a school bus for kids with special needs, she hit and physically abused at least two children by pulling their hair, elbowing them in the face, stomach, and back, and flicking their faces.
Neither of the boys can talk, but both were crying during the bus ride, police documents said.
Parents of the boys said police told them they believe her abuse was systemic and frequent and there are likely more victims.
Jones also endeared herself to several of the parents and gained their trust, all while she was abusing their children, parents said.
“I literally bought her Christmas presents at Christmas time and tea when she wasn’t feeling good,” said Jessica Vestal, the mother of a slight 10-year-old boy with sandy hair who was repeatedly abused by Jones, according to video footage on the bus. “It’s disgusting and every day, it was, ‘Oh, you guys are my favorite family on the bus' … It’s sick. It’s insane, but he’s safe now.”
In a letter to parents, Littleton Public Schools Superintendent Todd Lambert said:
This is the third known district in seven years where a bus assistant reportedly abused children with disabilities. A Larimer County paraprofessional with a history of child abuse was accused of punching autistic kids on a Poudre School District bus in May 2023. And in Boulder in 2017, a woman was convicted of abusing a disabled girl on a school bus repeatedly for seven days.
Kevin Yarbrough’s son is believed to be a victim, according to police, because he had an unexplained broken foot bone in the fall, and Jones was reportedly stomping on the children’s feet.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Yarbrough said he felt like he failed his son.
“I’m here today because I failed,” he said. “I failed him by trusting that the ladies on the bus and the people of the Littleton school district would also be there to protect him. I had assumed that when his teachers had a rough time getting off the bus, that there wasn’t a grown woman who was verbally and physically torturing my son and his friends. My son doesn’t have the ability to tell me when school is hurting him.”
In a video released Tuesday by civil rights attorneys, Jones can be seen in camera footage from the bus elbowing Vestal’s son in the torso and shoulders and stomping on his foot. The video was captured on March 19, 2024. Vestal’s son came home that day with a large bruise on the top of his foot, it looked like a bowling ball was dropped on it, his mother said.
She called the police and that was Jones’ last day at work, she said.
Kiarra Jones, 29, was arrested April 4 after police reviewed on-bus footage showing her assaulting a 10-year-old boy on his way to The Joshua School, a school for kids with developmental disabilities.
Lock her up and throw away the key.
@Magickcoochie After a month Dr.said:Why your wasting my time? After he saw the X-rays .But by that time my daughter started seating by herself 🥺😭it’s being 8 years and now she walks and didn’t need surgery .
@Magickcoochie Correct,a Curandera saved my special needs BACK from a surgery,with her thumb and a little massage.
She saw her and she said come I can help https://t.co/wbrFOgXOtU less than a minute she said:she’s ready,tell me what doctor say on your appointment.
#GivingTuesday is all about sharing a little good.
Join us by using #CaptureKindness in a tweet until 12/4. For each one, we’ll donate 100 meals* to @FeedingAmerica (up to 10 million meals).
https://t.co/yVlvM0Fws2
*$1 provides at least 10 meals. Min donation $100K.
Gracias a la Fundación FAST por enviarnos nuestras nuevas mascarillas.
#CureAngelmanNow
Thank you FAST
For our #facemasks 🥰😎 @ Broken Arrow, Oklahoma https://t.co/O2W0Ywt0I6
Buenos días gente, Bendiciones para todos.
Bendición para sus Matrimonios,Hijos y Negocios.
Gracias a Dios por ello.
Y recuerden ser de Bendición para otros, No somos Bendecidos para guardar,somos Bendecidos PARA BENDECIR🥰😍
Amén .
Así nosotros, ahorrando como locos, mientras todo mundo de vacaciones y de compras caras.
Primero Dios pronto estaremos donde queremos 🙏🏽 Gracias a Papá DIOS y después todo lo demás. https://t.co/kceuaJXqOa