BSO: Video shows bus aide choking autistic boy

Darryl Blue accused of abusing autistic student on bus

PARKLAND, Fla. ā€“ The Broward Sheriff's Office released surveillance video Friday showing, detectives said, a school bus aide choking a 13-year-old autistic boy.

According to deputies, Darryl Blue, 48, was sitting behind the 13-year-old boy and pulling a restraining harness tight against the boy's body and neck.

The boy had apparently urinated on himself.

BSO said Blue choked the boy because he was laughing.

The student can be heard yelling, "Ow! You're hurting me!" in the video, said police.

BSO said the incident happened Oct. 9 on a school bus leaving Westglades Middle School in Parkland.

School officials and deputies began investigating after the boy's mother reported the alleged abuse, authorities said.

Bertis Paulino, the boy's mother, spoke to Local 10 about her reaction to seeing the surveillance video.

"He hurt my son. From what I see, he tried to kill him the way he was doing it," said Paulino. "I couldn't take it. It was too much for me."

"Ross, I have to be honest, it was very difficult to watch. The video is quite disturbing. You see this young boy and he is screaming. You can tell that he's in pain and agony," said Veda Coleman-Wright with BSO.

"The way he was pulling this was up to here, and my son kept reaching back, trying to -- for him to release it because he was hurting him. And, he's screaming like an animal in pain," said Paulino as she demonstrated with a harness.

Blue was charged with felony child abuse and released from jail Thursday on $7,500 bail. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

Blue has been reassigned to a position away from children pending the outcome of an administrative investigation, officials said.

"He should be put away so he won't touch nobody else's child," said Paulino.

Paulino said her has been flinching since the incident.

"He's very scared and nervous right now," Paulino said.