Bus Monitor Found Guilty Of Hitting Student With Autism

NAPERVILLE, IL — Despite her testimony that she hit a student with autism to protect herself, a DuPage County judge found a Bolingbrook woman guilty of misdemeanor battery Tuesday. Joyce Jones, 69, was accused of hitting the 8-year-old boy in April 2016, later telling reporters "I took my hand and kind of rubbed it over his mouth" after he spit in her face.

At the time of the incident, Jones was an employee of First Student, which provided transportation for Indian Prairie School District 204. The boy was a third-grader at Patterson Elementary School in Naperville.

After the boy reported the incident, school officials viewed video records from the bus showing that Jones regularly hit the boy. During the case, prosecutors showed videos from 27 different incidents between February and April of 2016, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Judge James Orel found Jones guilty of six counts of misdemeanor battery, saying there's "no acceptable defense" for her actions, the Tribune reported.

Last year, Indian Prairie School District 204 Superintendent Karen Sullivan said both Jones and the school bus driver were immediately removed from the boy's bus route after his parents reported the incident. “Administrators immediately requested that both the First Student monitor and driver be removed from all District 204 bus routes and subsequently First Student terminated the employees,” Sullivan said at the time.

Jones is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 31 and could receive jail time.

Joyce Jones/Naperville Police Department