2 Teens Attacked On Their Way To School, Family Wants HCPSS Bus Service Restored

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Two teenage girls walking to school Tuesday morning were attacked by a man who tried to steal a purse and now their family wants the school district to restore bus service to their neighborhood.

The girls used to ride a bus to school, but with the overhaul of the bus system by the Howard County Public School System, the girls must walk to school or hitch a ride on the public transit bus, one girl's grandmother told WBFF.

The Howard County Police Department's crime bulletin shows that on Nov. 28 at 7:30 a.m., two teenage girls reported a man with his covered approached them, assaulted them and tried to steal one of the girl's purse. The man took off without stealing anything, the police report showed.

Jada Jones, 15, attends Wilde Lake High School in Columbia and spoke with Project Baltimore about the incident, which happened at a public transit bus stop on Columbia Road. Jones lives two miles from her high school, so she's been designated as a walker and ineligible for bus service.

“He was grabbing on her (Jada’s friend), her purse, and I started punching him and trying to get him off of her,” Jones told WBFF. "And then he started pulling my hair and punching me like in my chest. And we both were defending ourselves, like hitting our hand, trying to get him off us because he, he was fighting back. And we, I guess we let him loose like we got off of him, and we started running.”

Michele Williams, Jones' grandmother, told WBFF not every parent or relative has the means to transport kids to and from school. She wants the bus serve restored for the students' safety.

"Then, you made it difficult because now our children is getting hurt in the midst of this," Williams said.

Two Centennial High School students reported being robbed at gunpoint in two separate incidents while walking home from school earlier this month, Patch previously reported. The first robbery was reported at around 3 p.m. in the 9700 block of Riverside Circle in Ellicott City. A boy said two people with their faces covered threatened him with a gun, took his cell phone, then ran off, police told the The Baltimore Banner. At 3:05 p.m., another boy said two people with their faces covered used a handgun to rob him in the 9800 block of Gwynn Park Drive in Ellicott City.

The boys were not together, Howard County Police Department Public Information Officer Seth Hoffman said in an email to the Howard County Times. The robberies did happen in close proximity to each other within a short timeframe. Officers said the two incidents likely are related and might be connected to an attempted carjacking that happened earlier that afternoon in the 10300 block of College Square.

Bus issues marred the first day of school for Howard County Public School System families and spilled over to the rest of the first week of school. According to HCPSS Superintendent Michael Martirano, delays commonly happen at the beginning of the school year because drivers are learning their routes. On the first day of school for HCPSS, more than 200 buses were trying to leave the bus depot at the same time, causing a major traffic bottleneck, he told CBS News.

The superintendent also said one of the issues that caused delays was the fact that some bus numbers did not match the ones parents found on the school district's "Connect" website, which is a platform used to communicate with parents. The buses addressed the signage problem by posting signs in their windows with the numbers that match those found in the HCPSS Connect website.

During the first week of school, HCPSS officials and its new transportation company Zum suspended 20 bus routes, forcing families to find alternate means of transportation. One parent told WJZ that the confusion caused her middle school-aged daughter to climb on the wrong bus.

"My daughter actually jumped on the high school bus this morning, not realizing it," parent Nikki Marlatt-Young said. "Then they got down the road, and then she told the bus driver that she was on the wrong bus, that she's a middle schooler and then he let her off right there."

Marlatt-Young said the bus driver left her daughter on a busy street.

"No sidewalks," Marlatt-Young said. "It's a huge busy intersection with a great deal of accidents. You're going to let her out at that intersection of all places? So yeah, not to mention she could've been snatched."

Related:

• Busing Issues Lessening For HCPSS Families: School
• HCPSS Anticipates Bus Delays, Route Suspensions For 2nd Week Of School
• HCPSS Chief Operating Officer Resigns Amidst Bussing Problems: Report
• More Suspended Bus Routes Restored For Howard County Students
• HCPSS Students Will Have New Start Times To Help With Bus Delays
• Mobile App To Help Howard Co. Parents Keep Tabs On Kids' School Buses
• School Bus Woes Worry HoCo Executive Who 'Shares Frustration' With Parents
• Lengthy Bus Delays, Not Enough Drivers Plague HCPSS 1st Day Of School
• Bus Driver Shortage Means Many HoCo Routes Will Double Up: HCPSS
• Last 3 Bus Routes Restored For HCPSS Students: Superintendent
• New School Start Times Won't Fix Busing Problem, Driver Says: Report