MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) – In an Action News Five exclusive a former Mid-South high school student says he was beaten on a Shelby County school bus, his injuries so brutal he missed weeks of school.
His parents say the school's response was so weak they are now suing the school board and bus driver in addition to the bully who threw the punches.
December 6th 2011, the day a bus ride home changed then-Arlington-High-School-sophomore Connor Phillips forever.
"Whenever I talk about it, I'm kind of nervous and I start getting a little bit jittery," Phillips said. "I ended up having eight fractures in my nose. Had a collapsed nasal cavity, a broken cheek bone, multiple lacerations, black eyes, chipped teeth."
Connor says a bully was picking on his friend, so he confronted him, he says, by tapping him with the blunt end of a pencil.
"I just wanted to talk to him and ask him why he was bullying my friend and to see if he would stop," said Phillips. "Before I can get a word out he turns around and just immediately begins cursing me out."
20 minutes later when Connor tried to exit the bus in front of his house, he says the same kid whacked him in the face with a three ring binder, then pummeled him with his fists. Connor required nasal reconstruction surgery and multiple trips to the dentist to fix his teeth. He stayed out of school for four weeks.
"This is aggravated assault," Connor's father Scott Phillips said. "This is not simple assault. This is not someone walking up and shoving someone and calling them a name. This is, despite the lack of a weapon, aggravated assault."
Five months after the bus beat down, the Phillips say a juvenile court judge found the other student guilty of aggravated assault. Connor's father Scott says school administrators were not nearly as responsive.
"I was told I would have to have an attorney to get any information from the school," Scott said. "Okay, well if that's the only way I'm going to get what I need then that's what I'll have to do. So the cards were laid out on the table for me."
In April, the Phillips filed a lawsuit against the other student and his family. In a legal response, their attorney claims they're not liable for any damages because Connor started it "by forcefully poking his client in the back of the head with the sharpened point of a pencil."
The Phillips' also sued the school board and the bus driver alleging negligence because the assault was "forseeable," and because the other student had been "suspended multiple times and is a known bully at school."
The Shelby County School system declined comment, citing ongoing litigation. However a spokesperson sent us a link to the board's policies on bullying and discipline.
That policy says bullying "will not be tolerated." Certain infractions including "aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury" and "criminal behavior resulting in a felony charge" qualify as zero tolerance offenses resulting in 180 day suspension, a full school year.
But the Phillips say the same student who assaulted Connor in December returned to class and the bus by mid-Spring.
"Our main purpose today is (a) to inform the public about what's going on in the school system and (b) help them protect their children," Scott Phillips said. "When it comes down to it, and when it comes down to the safety of your child they don't follow their own rules. They kind of make them up as they go. Kids should not have to go to school in fear. They should not have to be afraid. They should not come home to their parents in worse shape than when they went to school."
Their newfound mistrust of the system prompted the Phillips to move out of state to Houston, Texas.
Connor's face is fixed, but the anger remains just as raw as when he first stepped off the bus.
"I really hope that the school finally decides to, you know, take it seriously," said Connor. "It doesn't have to happen to anybody else because it really was pretty traumatic for me."
While their complaints seek damages in excess of half a million dollars, the Phillips' say these lawsuits are not about money. The alleged bully's attorney claims his client is too young to be held liable. He is a minor. That's why Action News 5 did not identify him. Neither case has been resolved.
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