Dec 10, 2007 6:47 pm US/Eastern
School Will Address MTA Bus Attack
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
A woman remains bruised and battered after teens attacked her on a city bus. Now there are new questions over how the students should be punished, including whether or not the school should step in.
Kathryn Brown has the latest.
Eyewitness News has now confirmed prosecutors are looking into charging several of these teenage students as adults in the attack.
The bruised and broken face of Sarah Kreager shows the signs of a brutal attack. The 26-year-old mother of three was beaten up after refusing to give up her seat on an MTA bus.
Now nine teenagers from Robert Poole Middle School have been charged.
"What took place was unacceptable and that has to be dealt with," said Mayor Sheila Dixon.
Eyewitness News has learned the surveillance tape from the bus' security camera is blank. Forensics teams are trying, so far without success, to recover images.
"Clearly, this is one incident in a population of 80,000 students. Things happen. It is a tragedy, as I said. It casts a light that I would rather not be cast on the school system," said Baltimore City Schools CEO Dr. Andres Alonso.
But bus riders say the incident is not isolated.
"Sometimes they're real rough," said Beverly Scast.
The issue isn't confined to just buses. Many Hampden residents say they constantly have problems with students and one store has banned them from coming in at all in the afternoons.
"The stores have signs up saying only two students in at a time or no students at a time," said Eric Rose.
MTA police say they plan to beef up police presence on school runs. Meantime, school leaders say they plan to talk to students and remind them to be courteous when they are on city buses.
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