Bus Driver Charged With Slapping 6-Year-Old

BLUE EARTH  (AP) - A Blue Earth school bus driver has been charged with slapping a 6-year-old passenger who she says was unruly.

Seventy-two-year-old Jane Brooks is charged with fifth-degree assault.

Brooks says the 6-year-old was hitting a smaller child on the head with his book bag during an afternoon route Sept. 14.

She says the boy refused to move to another seat so she had to physically move him. The child then began kicking passengers across the aisle. Brooks says she radioed for help and school staff told her to move other children away from the boy.

As Brooks was doing so, the boy spit on the children in the seat behind him.

A criminal complaint says Brooks told the boy to stop spitting and when he did so again, she slapped him across the face.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved)