On Monday, Jan. 30, 2012, an Alexandria Circuit Court Judge ordered Shawnee Keels, a former Alexandria City elementary school bus monitor to pay compensatory and punitive damages to a 10 year old child she assaulted multiple times in October 2009. Keels, an Oxon Hill, Maryland resident, had previously pleaded guilty to assault and had been given a suspended sentence of one year in jail. Keels did not respond or participate in the civil suit. In the civil action brought by the child’s mother and father, Judge James C. Clark heard evidence that the child’s mother repeatedly complained to the school system about Ms. Keels and suspected abuses. She testified that she had complained that Keels was assaulting her child, who was born with Down’s Syndrome and was, at the time of the assaults, non-verbal, by pinching him on the inside of his sides, causing bruising. The mother testified at trial that nothing ever came of her complaints and that she tried to be more friendly to Keels in order to get the suspected attacks to stop.

In October 2009, her child came home from school one day and motioned that he had been hit in the face. This time the mother called the Alexandria Police who were able to recover the video monitoring that was on the Alexandria City school bus. The tape showed Keels striking and kicking the child multiple times and the bus driver and Keels ordering the child to walk to the front of the bus while the bus was in motion. Clark ordered Keels to pay $25,000 in compensatory damages and $10,000 in punitive damages.

“I brought this suit in order to make sure that other parents would not have to discover the horror of knowing that their special needs child was being subjected to physical and emotional abuse on a school bus”, said Hayat Ramadan, the child’s mother.