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Mother Faces Charges For Bus Attack Caught On Video

Posted: 7:08 am EST January 6, 2006Updated: 2:42 pm EST January 6, 2006

SLIDESHOW: Step-By-Step Look At School Bus Attack

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- A mother accused of attacking a student on a Brevard County school bus now faces charges. Video cameras on the Sable Elementary school bus captured the entire incident.

The incident took place in mid-October, but first-degree misdemeanor battery charges against Coni Staton were filed Wednesday, one day before the video as released for the first time.

Coni Staton

State attorneys said there's indisputable evidence the woman in the video broke the law. The video shows Coni Staton putting her arms and hands on a 6-year-old's neck. Staton is a foster mother who told deputies her child was being taunted by the kids on the school bus, including Trevina Crawford's son, Antonio.

"I don't even touch my son like that, so what gives her the God-given right to put her hands on my baby?" Crawford questioned.

Crawford was outraged when she saw Staton push her son back into his seat after Staton told investigators her foster daughter, in the back of the bus, was too afraid to get off.

On the video, Staton then appears to come forward and, to clear the way, takes the 6-year-old boy by the back of the neck and then puts her arm around it as she wrestles him into his bus seat.

"It made me want to jump through that video and do everything she did to my son," Crawford said.

Staton was arrested the next day, but first-degree misdemeanor battery charges weren't filed until Wednesday.

Crawford said the taunting my have happened, but is no excuse for what she saw on the video.

"He feels like he was wrong, but me and his counselors are working with him to let him know, regardless of what you do, nobody has the right to put their hands on you," she said.

Staton is scheduled to appear in court next month. The charges could carry a fine and a year in jail.
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