HAMILTON, Ohio — Two Hamilton parents say their daughter was brutally beaten on her school bus Thursday afternoon, but while other students threw the punches, they're pointing the blame on some adults too.
Jessica Watkins said her 12-year-old daughter Malayah will now have to spend her 13th birthday with a swollen eye.
"She's pretty much traumatized from it," she said.
Malayah was sitting down as the Hamilton City School District bus approached a stop near her own, Watkins said. As other students were walking off, two girls stood up.
That's when the girls, joined by their brother, ran to where Malayah was sitting and started punching her repeatedly, Watkins said.
But that wasn't the worst part, Watkins and Malayah's father Arthur Willams said. As the students were hitting their daughter, the bus driver allegedly stayed in his seat and left the doors open, allowing two adults on the bus who only encouraged the beating to continue, they said.
"Once the kids ran back and did what they did, no adults should have been on the bus besides the driver," Williams said.
The two believe they were the other students' parents.
"You're raising your kids to do things like this? You know you're — you egged it on. You participated in it. You got in a child's face. And you thought that it was OK. You thought that it was OK for your little boy to put his hands on a little girl," Watkins said.
The assault was filmed on several students' phones and shared on social media platforms, including TikTok. They have since been taken down, but not before other students sent them to Malayah, which her mother provided to authorities.
The driver shut the bus doors and called Hamilton police after the assault ended, Watkins said.
"They had more than one child they wanted to fight. She was just the first victim, unfortunately," Watkins said.
She and Williams said their daughter has been having problems with that group of students for a while now. They attend Garfield Middle School together and Malayah's parents said the school administration was aware of the lingering tension on the bus leading up to Thursday's attack.
"The school has attempted to move the kids around," Watkins said. "They told them that they would get suspended if they stood up on the bus — I'm assuming that's why (one of the girls) waited for the other students to get up."
WCPO reached out to the middle school as well as the district for comment via phone and email but did not hear back by the end of the day Friday.
"It's the parents and the driver. Y'all are the adults in this situation," said Williams. "The outcome of this where my daughter is injured and nobody is moving as fast as I need them to move. As a parent? I want it done now."
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