Brick Mom Petitions For School Bus Cameras After Son Is Choked

BRICK, NJ — A Brick Township mother whose son was beat up in a fight on a Brick Township school bus is pushing for a state mandate for video cameras inside and outside buses. But it's something the district already is working to achieve, officials said.

Katie Zeoli, whose son is a sixth-grader at Veterans Memorial Middle School, started a petition in early November, after a fight where she says her son was beaten and choked at the back of a school bus days before Halloween.

In a petition to directed to Gov. Phil Murphy, Zeoli wants cameras mandated on every bus in Brick Township. "Buses are extremely small spaces with a very captive audience and a bus driver whose focus is on the road," she wrote. "Interior cameras can not only monitor the kids behavior but also the driver. This can help minimize bullying and bad behavior. We can track where and when each child boards and exits the bus. Most importantly, we will have video evidence when incidents occur."

Zeoli's petition on Change.org had gathered more than 2,800 signatures as of Tuesday.

Sean Cranston, acting superintendent of the Brick Township Schools, said some of the district's 107 buses already have cameras, and the district has 30 it purchased through a grant that it is hoping to have installed by early 2020. That will make more than 70 percent of the district's fleet equipped with cameras.

"We have a local company that has given us a quote to install them, but under state law we have to have two quotes," Cranston said. The district's transportation director, Donald Wilson, is searching for another company to provide a quote, as not many companies install the cameras.

"We do not have the manpower to do it ourselves," Cranston said.

He also said the district will have to replace more of its school bus fleet in 2020, and new buses are automatically equipped with cameras. So it would not make sense to buy cameras for all of its buses when some will be replaced within a year, especially as the district continues to face severe cuts in state aid.

The cameras purchased under the grant cost about $900 each, and the estimate to install them is at least $300 apiece, he said.

Zeoli, in her petition, said the incident happened Oct. 28 as her son was riding the bus home from school. Words were exchanged with another student, and her son was punched in the face and then choked on the floor of the bus, while other students took video of the incident on their phone, she alleges. "The other students on the bus are yelling 'fight, fight, fight' and then proceed to videotape my son getting choked. No one stepped in to help. The only reason the other child stopped choking my son because the bus had stopped at my son's bus stop," she said in an email to Patch.

The bus driver was not aware of the incident, she said.

"My son called me hysterical about the incident," Zeoli said on her petition. "Not only being hurt, but he was horrified, embarrassed, and felt helpless."

Cranston could not address specifics of Zeoli's statements due to student privacy issues, but said the administration at Veterans Middle School "handled it and disciplined the student."

Zeoli was unhappy with the outcome, saying the student who choked her son was suspended but was back on the bus a few days later. That is why she is pushing for cameras on every bus, she said.

Cranston said the main purpose of cameras is to provide documentation when something happens. They are not a guaranteed deterrent.

"They give us a better view of an incident, but they do not stop incidents," Cranston said. There have been instances where drivers have been fired as a result of incidents captured on video, and other times where video has contradicted claims of what took place.

"People forget they are there," he said.

Cameras on the outside of buses, which Zeoli included in her petition, have been a topic of legislation proposed by state Sen. James Holzapfel and Assemblymen Dave Wolfe and Greg McGuckin of the 10th district. The bill was passed by the state Senate in January 2017 but languished; a similar bill introduced in 2018 has languished as well.

Cameras on the stop arm of school buses are mandatory in 21 states, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. a number of states, and Zeoli said the "average cost per unit per bus can be as low as $850 and as high as $7,000 per unit per bus." To outfit all 107 buses would cost $90,000 to almost $750,000, based on Zeoli's per-unit estimates.

Cranston said the district works with the Brick Township Police Department to deal with drivers who pass stopped school buses. When a bus driver reports multiple incidents on a particular road, the district contacts the police department, which monitors the area and tickets drivers.

"That usually brings it under control," he said, because it's typically just a few drivers ignoring the law.

Cranston said the issue of cameras will be addressed at Thursday's Board of Education meeting. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the district's Professional Development Center at the Veterans Memorial complex on Hendrickson Boulevard.

He said he understands the concerns of parents about the safety of their children. But a state mandate could be problematic because of the critical funding issues the district faces due to the ongoing cuts to state aid. The district stands to lose nearly $30 million by the time the cuts are completed four years from now, unless officials can convince the state legislature to reverse course.

"If the state funds it, great," Cranston said. But an unfunded mandate will mean cuts elsewhere.

"The dance teacher is a good example," he said. Districts were required to add a dance teacher to their arts curriculum offerings. That has come as the expense of other positions; Brick cut more than 30 positions in the 2019-2020 school year, including general education teachers.

"What is the cost to keep our kids safe?" Zeoli asked on her petition. "We as parents expect our kids to be safe on the school bus. This isn't the case."

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