Parent arrested after brawl on school bus
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - It’s an explosive video of a school bus fight with an unexpected participant, a parent.
Nijah Underwood, 35, the Lawrenceville mother involved in the fight on a bus at Central Gwinnett High School is out of jail after being arrested at home Wednesday.
The cell phone video recording of the school bus fight involved, according to school police, shows two Central Gwinnett High School students and the parent of one of the girls, investigators said was Underwood.
Central Gwinnett High School student Jaleel Kyon recorded the video of the fight which he said caught everyone off guard.
“It’s crazy because you know that’s a mom hitting a child,” said Jaleel Kyon. “It was so unexpected.”
According to a letter to parents from the principal of Central Gwinnett High School, two students had been in a fight at the bus stop before the bus arrived Wednesday morning. The principal said one of the 9th graders went home and returned with her mother. Then both the mother and student, Underwood and her daughter, boarded the bus past the driver to confront the other 9th grader which led to fisticuffs.
“As a parent you got to learn how to handle things in a different way and not get on a bus and especially not hitting on someone else’s child, that’s a no-no,” said Karen Silas, the mother of Jaleel.
After school police broke up the bus fight, they later arrested Underwood at her Lawrenceville home on charges of simple battery and disruption of schools.
Someone else came to the door when FOX 5’s George Franco went to Underwood’s Lawrenceville home. They did not want to answer any questions.
Underwood’s daughter and the other 9th grader involved in the bus fight, according to police and the Central High’s principal, also face criminal charges and disciplinary action because of their actions provoking each other.
The police report said Jaleel Kyon’s video and witness statements help them determine that Ms. Underwood quote ‘encouraged the altercation by allowing the students to fight.’
“She should have talked to her daughter, tried to calm the situation, if anything and not used that type of violence in front of all the rest of the kids too,” said Silas.
The two teen students each face charges of battery.