SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — A van driver for a private school in California was caught on video going on a profanity-laden tirade and hitting a student.
Wanda Jackson said her 11-year-old grandson Z’Kai Jackson was belittled and berated by a driver he’s known for the last three years, and she is shocked that the verbal altercation turned physical.
On Tuesday, Wanda Jackson received a phone call from her grandson’s school saying there was an altercation between her grandson and his school van driver.
“I was disturbed, I was truly disturbed. I was upset. I couldn’t even focus at work,” Wanda Jackson recalled.
Z’Kai attends Point Quest Education, a private school that caters to special education students with cognitive and behavioral needs. He said the incident started when he and other students were playing on an iPad and ignored the driver’s requests to put it away.
“The driver got mad at me and a boy, and then he got mad at me more,” Z’Kai recalled.
Z’Kai said that’s when he pulled out his cell phone and pressed record.
In the recording, the van driver says, “You’re acting like, ‘Hey I’m not around them, so I can act however the f— I want.’ Yes, you are!”
“You don’t have to cuss at me like that,” Z’Kai Jackson replies.
“Then you don’t have to f—— misbehave in front of me like that,” the driver says.
“So, I got to call your parents every f—— time I got to tell you something? That’s the only m——— who can tell you some s—? Your parents?” the driver says in the recording.
Wanda Jackson said the drivers are behavioral aides who are supposed to help students with their behavior.
Instead, the driver is seen in the video pulling the van over, shouting expletives several times in front of Z’Kai Jackson and the other students before finally getting physical.
“Say one more f—— thing!” the driver repeatedly says in the recording while hitting the student.
“It just kept escalating and escalating and the point that really frustrated me is when he said, ‘You better answer me before I hurt you,’” Wanda Jackson said. “I knew I would’ve been fired or handcuffed if I put my hands on someone.”
The director of Point Quest, Elena Levin, released a statement saying, “Point Quest is aware of an incident involving the unacceptable verbal abuse of a student by an employee van driver. Our investigation is ongoing, but the employee has been terminated….The terminated employee’s behavior violated standards of common sense and decency as well as the specific de-escalation skills that all our employees are trained to employ.”