Mother Is Furious After 7-Year-Old Son With Down Syndrome Is Horribly Injured on the Bus

A Pennsylvania mother is demanding answers after her 7-year-old son with Down syndrome fell on the school bus and was left with a black eye and lacerations all over his face.

Elizabeth Aguero, 52, of East Stroudsburg told PEOPLE Magazine that her son Michael had only been on the bus to Resica Elementary School for 45 minutes on June 5 when school officials called her to tell her to come pick him up.

“They told me there was an incident and that my son was bleeding,” Aguero said. “I needed to get there immediately and [they asked], ‘Should [we] call an ambulance?’ It’s hard to describe. It was horrible. It was hard to see my baby covered in blood.”

Aguero arrived to find her son in tears, and nurses said that all they knew was that he “fell off the bus when he was going to school in the morning.”

She immediately rushed Michael to St. Luke’s Hospital’s Monroe Campus, where doctors found that he had two fractures as well as a swollen, leaking eye.

“Nobody wants to see their child hurt. There was no reason for my son to fall on his head,” she said. “It’s hard. They said they don’t know exactly what happened. The school wouldn’t allow me to see the [surveillance video].”

Aguero demands justice

Aguero said that she demanded that school officials show her surveillance footage of what happened, but they refused, so she filed a police report. It was only then that she was shown the video footage, which she said corroborated claims that the little boy fell. However, Aguero alleged that she also saw that school staffers on the bus were “negligent” and she wants them held responsible.

“I don’t want this to happen to another kid. Another kid may not survive this,” she said through tears. “I want better training. Michael is not the first, but I want him to be the last. No one should have immunity against child negligence. That was total negligence. Michael is a special needs child. I want justice.”

Aguero added that while Michael is healing well, she still wants justice for him.

“Life was normal, everything is good. Now this,” she said. “We’re just trying to make [Perrin] as comfortable and happy as possible.”