A Colorado school bus aide has learned her fate after she was caught on video striking at least three nonverbal students who have autism, knocking out a tooth and fracturing bones in the process.
Kiarra Jones was sentenced to serve 4 and a half years behind bars during a hearing on Friday, March 20, prosecutors with the 18th Judicial District said in a statement.
The sentencing came after Jones, 30, pleaded guilty in January to 10 counts of third-degree felony assault of an at-risk child and two counts of misdemeanor child abuse.
During the recent hearing, Judge Laqunya Baker said that video of the assaults were “gut-wrenching” to watch and she concluded that prison time was an appropriate punishment for Jones.
Meanwhile, one of the victim’s parents, Kevin Yarbrough, also addressed the court during the hearing.
“I stand before you today as not just a parent, but as a voice, a voice for my son who cannot stand here and speak for himself, a voice for a child who trusted adults around him to protect him and was instead hurt by someone who was supposed to care for him,” Yarbrough said, according to Colorado Public Radio.
Jones was an employee of Littleton Schools and was tasked to be with the kids on the bus each day as it made its way to The Joshua School, which caters to students with autism.
The investigation into the assaults was launched in 2024 when one of the students came home with bruises on his foot, according to Law & Crime. The boy’s mother called the bus director for Littleton Public Schools and asked if she could review the surveillance video from inside the buses to learn what happened.
The footage revealed the horrifying truth that Jones assaulted the boy on the day in question, as well as hit him and other students on several other occasions. Police concluded that there were at least three victims.
The Littleton Police Department learned about the possible child abuse on the school bus on March 28, 2024. Investigators also reviewed video from the bus, which showed Jones hitting one boy several times.
Police obtained an arrest warrant on April 4, 2024, and Jones was booked into custody at Arapahoe County Jail. She was later released after she posted a $5,000 bond.
The parents of the three victims eventually hired a lawyer and opened up about the abuse during a press conference, sharing that their children suffered a knocked-out tooth, fractured bones and deep bruises.
The parents publicly released a surveillance video from the bus that was taken on the afternoon of March 18, 2024, which showed Jones elbowing and slapping the boy and stomping on his feet in a seemingly unprovoked attack.
Amid the investigation, Joshua School issued a statement saying that it first heard concerns from a mother in January 2024 about her child’s injuries.
“Self-injurious behavior and unexplained bruising isn’t uncommon in our students, but because of the concern of a mother trying to identify the source of her child’s injuries, we contacted the [Littleton] school district to request a review of transportation footage for anything out of the ordinary,” the school said, per Law & Crime. “At that time, we were assured by LPS that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. We then continued to communicate and work with the mother to identify the source of her child’s injuries.”
