DA brings 10 new charges against Littleton bus monitor accused of beating autistic child

Prosecutors this week levied 10 additional charges against a former Littleton Public Schools bus monitor who was accused of beating a non-verbal autistic child on a school bus in March.

Kiarra Jones, 29, was arrested in April on a single charge of third-degree assault of an at-risk person, a low-level felony. On Wednesday, prosecutors with the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office moved to bring an additional 10 charges — related to two children — against Jones, including seven additional assault charges and two child abuse charges, according to a motion prosecutors filed with the court.

The new charges involve alleged abuse of the child originally named as a victim and a second child, 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner said.

Jones appeared in court Friday to face the charges. She was fired from her bus monitor job on March 19 and subsequently arrested after officials reviewed video from the prior day’s bus ride in which Jones elbowed a 10-year-old boy in the stomach, punched him in the head and slammed his head into a bus window.

The boy had been sitting quietly before the unprovoked attack. When Jones was arrested, investigators said there was evidence she also assaulted another child.

The boy’s mother noticed bruises on her son’s body and alerted authorities. Jones was released from jail on a $5,000 bond.

The names of the victims were redacted in court documents, but Qusair Mohamedbhai, a lawyer who represents the families of students who took the bus Jones worked on in, said they are both nonverbal autistic boys including the 10-year-old shown being hit in the video released by his mother.

Each of the new assault charges, which are felonies, represents a day in which there are multiple separate incidents of abuse against the children, Mohamedbhai said.

Jones’ arrest joins her with other Colorado school bus attendants who have been accused of abusing children with autism in recent years.

St. Vrain Valley School District bus assistant Monica Burke pleaded guilty in 2017 to kicking and spraying disinfectant in the face of a student with disabilities. Last year, Poudre School District paraprofessional Tyler Zanella was arrested after video showed him striking at least two students on the bus, according to 9News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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