IIem Mintor (pictured), a Florida bus driver for a handicap bus company, was fired after he was caught on a cellphone video cursing and tying the hands of a 20-year-old autistic student with a seat belt, according to WPBF 25.
On Monday, Minto was chaffering three students from West Palm Beach’s Renaissance Learning Center, a school for children with autism. The driver, who is employed by Metro Mobility, a bus company that contracts with the Palm Tran corporation, claims the unnamed student repeatedly attempted to open the rear door of the bus while it was in motion.
According to Mintor, other motorists were shouting at him to summon police on the youth. Instead, Mintor said he pulled over, called his dispatcher and was instructed to stay put until the student’s father could arrive on the scene to deal with the situation.
Mintor, who staunchly defends his actions, states he merely threatened to tie the student’s hands together with a seatbelt in order to stop him from opening the vehicle’s rear door.
“I say, ‘Don’t do that, man,’” Mintor told WPBF 25 News. “And I grabbed a seat belt. I say, ‘If you keep doing that, I’m gonna wrap your hand and take you back home like this.’ I’m just giving him the pressure now.”
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Yet the video depicts a different course of action. On the film, Mintor is clearly seen exasperated, as he ties the man’s wrists together with the seatbelt, while uttering a few expletives and speaking to the seemingly docile youth in a menacing tone.
Palm Tran terminated Mintor after company administrators viewed the disturbing video.
Meanwhile, Metro Mobility told WPBF 25 that it is revisiting its training procedures for their drivers
The company’s attorney, Neil Schiller, said, “Metro Mobility is shocked by the actions that this driver took. In no way, shape or form does Metro Mobility endorse what the driver did. It’s actually the opposite.”
Mobility Bus Driver Uses Seat Belt To Tie Up Autistic Student’s Hands was originally published on newsone.com
