PINE BUSH – On May 4 this year, 73 year old school bus monitor Shirley Ellson was seen on one of the bus video cameras installed in First Student's buses serving the Pine Bush School District striking two autistic children.

However, in a lawsuit against First Student launched by Attorney Michael Sussman, it is alleged the bus company took no action.

"They don't even look at the video," said Sussman. "Their attorney told us that they have a retention policy of 30 days, at which point they destroy the video. There's a lack of accountability here."

The case has now been lodged with Orange County Supreme Court, with a hearing scheduled for the first week of October.

The two children involved in the May 4 incident are described as "non-verbal" autistics. This means they could not communicate, either to their parents or to teachers, about what was happening to them on board the buses.

The father of one of the victims, Daniel Viggiano, eventually did see some video that had been edited by police from the bus camera data.

"The monitor is forcibly holding my son's right arm, causing the bruises and scratches that occurred on May 4," he said. "While he's repeatedly trying to free his arm and crying, the monitor is repeatedly smacking him on his face."

It got worse. There was one other child on the bus, also autistic, sitting behind Viggiano's son. The monitor, it is alleged, leaned over and smacked that child in the face before smacking Viggiano's son again, then striking the other child hard enough to knock his headphones off. Throughout this violent episode, the monitor was screaming abuse at the two autistic children.

The mother of the second child, Patricia Nelson, was left shaken by the loss of trust in the bus company and the school district.

"One hour, each day, five days a week and not one person in the entire company came forward in defense of these boys," she said. "And these are the people we all depend on to take care or our kids."

Both families report that First Student was less than cooperative when they sought more information. At first, they say, the company told them that the video recordings were useless due to a lack of visibility and poor camera angles. However, after state police obtained the recordings the parents saw them and they report that there were, in fact, three different and quite visible camera angles showing the abusive incident.

Unfortunately, it may be that this was not an isolated incident. Attorney Sussman reports "five or six" similar claims of abuse.

"One in Minisink, another in Port Jervis, another in Wappingers Falls. All involved abuse of children on buses," he explained. "The Port Jervis case concerned a handicapped child. Since this case became public more cases are being reported up and down the Hudson Valley."

Alarmingly, the incidents range from verbal abuse to physical assault and even sexual abuse.

In the Pine Bush case, the parents say they were not informed of the incident. The bus monitor was suspended the very next day, however, and then resigned her position.

Pine Bush Superintendent of Schools Joan Carbone released a statement concerning this case saying, "The Pine Bush Central School District was informed Tuesday, July 14, 2015 that an incident occurred on May 4, 2015 involving two Pine Bush Central School District students and a bus monitor... The bus monitor is an employee of First Student, the bus company the District contracts with to provide bus transportation. The First Student bus company is responsible for the hiring and supervision of all its employees."

Continuing, Carbone added that, "The Pine Bush Central School District has a zero-tolerance policy regarding any abusive or otherwise inappropriate behavior by any District employee or the staff of any District vendor towards any student or member of the Pine Bush Central School District. The safety of our District's students will always be our highest priority. The District is cooperating fully with the State Police as they investigate this incident and has been working with First Student to ensure all bus company employees are qualified and appropriately trained, and that all videotaped bus sessions are regularly reviewed."

First Student released a statement saying, "Safety and security for students is of paramount interest to First Student. As soon as we were made aware of these allegations, Mrs. Ellson was relieved of her duties. First Student is cooperating fully with local authorities and is also conducting an internal review. First Student is unable to comment further owing to pending litigation."

Sussman commented, "So far, nothing seems to have been done about these cases. The bus company keeps its contract. School districts prefer to settle these cases rather than go to court."

Sussman agreed that part of the problem was a lack of appropriate training for bus monitors.