Video shows KIPP Morial bus fight

A video posted on Tuesday night shows a fifth grade student receiving repeated punches from an older child on a school bus. The clip, which captured the incident on the ride home from KIPP Morial in New Orleans East, gained approximately 40,000 views within 20 minutes before the uploader removed it at the request of the victim's mother.

Dionne Conerly, 33, identified the boy in the video as her son, Karmelo McCoi. Conerly stated that the physical altercation occurred on the afternoon of Oct. 30. She said her son had reported the bullying to a teacher that morning but was not removed from the bus when the older student struck him that evening.

According to Karmelo, the bullying began with verbal exchanges before the bus departed the school. The older student, whom Conerly believes is in seventh or eighth grade, allegedly punched Karmelo in retaliation for a verbal warning the teacher had issued at lunchtime. Conerly said, "He waited till that evening when they got on the bus and he beat my child up."

Conerly said her six year old daughter, who also rides the bus, witnessed the fight. The daughter told her mother that the bus driver contacted a school dean, who boarded the bus to investigate. Neither student was removed from the vehicle at that time. Conerly spoke with school officials on Wednesday morning and questioned why the children were allowed to remain on the bus after the driver reported a fight.

"I asked them, if a bus driver called you on the bus and said two kids had a fight, why weren't they both removed off the bus and parents called right then and there?" Conerly said. She added that staff told her the incident did not seem like a big deal, a characterization she disputes based on the video evidence.

The school offered a four day suspension as the remedy for the older student. Conerly noted that the student did not attend school on Wednesday, likely due to the circulating video. Under guidelines from NOLA Public Schools, a suspended child cannot return until after a parent teacher conference. Some schools also ban students from buses for periods of time following incidents.

Hammond's Transportation, the company providing buses for KIPP New Orleans, told Conerly that both children had been removed from the bus. The company owner also stated he was informed the incident happened over a month prior. Neither KIPP New Orleans nor Hammond's Transportation responded immediately to requests for comment.

Conerly said Karmelo feels embarrassed and humiliated and does not want to return to school. She is considering filing a report with the New Orleans Police Department and would like to see the other student charged. She expressed concern that the bullying could escalate as the video continues to spread on social media.