Mother afraid to let daughter ride bus

The mother of a 14-year-old girl who was attacked getting off a school bus earlier this week says she won't send her daughter back to her school in Streamwood until she feels it's safe.

On Tuesday afternoon, the teen was riding the bus from Tefft Middle School. As she got off less than a block from her home, the girl was beaten by three older boys who had also just gotten off the bus, her mother said.

The boys hit the teen on the back of her head and then punched her in the face, said Sue Velazquez, the girl's mother.

"They ripped earrings off of her cartilage, and there was blood running down both sides of her face," Velazquez said. "Honestly, when she got off the bus, there was so much blood I thought she had been shot."

The family filed a police report and Streamwood police say they're investigating the matter.

Officers still are interviewing the students who were on the bus that day, Streamwood Deputy Chief James Gremo said.

Velazquez says this incident is one of the many that show a lack of supervision on the U-46 school buses.

"There has been an ongoing problem on this one bus route," she said. "Students are launching water bottles, soda bottles and throwing hairbrushes. Nothing's been done."

While Velazquez says she was told by school officials that bus incidents "weren't their problem," Jeff King, Elgin Area School District U-46's executive director of operations, said discipline issues are handled in conjunction with the attending school building and transportation officials.

U-46 does not use an outside busing company, King said.

Thursday, district officials placed an adult supervisor on the girl's bus and plan to assign seats to students.

"The individual who instigated the event is being removed from the bus," King said.

Tefft Middle School currently has three bus routes that use assigned seating, King said.