BEAUFORT, SC (Nov. 16, 2017) – A school bus attendant accused of hitting and punching 3-year-old special needs student as he rode the bus has been sentenced to three years in prison and 100 hours of community service.
Lillian Jackson, 64, of Seabrook pleaded guilty Thursday to seven counts of second-degree assault and battery at the Beaufort County Courthouse in connection with a series of assaults in February 2015.
Bruising, scratch marks and other injuries were discovered on the non-verbal autistic boy by the child’s mother.
School bus surveillance video shows Jackson striking the Bluffton Elementary School student in the face with her hand, either with a closed fist or with the back of her hand, on at least seven different occasions as the boy sat in the bus’s front passenger seat, restrained by a five-point harness. She also repeatedly pinched the boy.
“This little boy did not have the ability to say what was happening to him and endured abuse at the hands of someone who was in a position of authority and trust,” Assistant Solicitor Alex Joseph said.
Joseph has been with the Solicitor’s Office since 2015.
Circuit Court Judge Marvin Dukes handed down Thursday’s sentence.
