Posted on 08/03/2010 2:50:53 PM PDT by Tom87
July 17--SHALIMAR -- Michael Bowersock, a former Okaloosa County school bus driver accused of molesting a student on the bus, will appear in court Tuesday, possibly to enter a plea.
Bowersock's attorney, Christopher Varner, told Circuit Court Judge John Brown on Thursday that, given an opportunity to confer with his client, he would be able to either enter a plea or ask for a continuance.
Court officers said they still were attempting to obtain a deposition from "one of the children" involved in the case.
Bowersock and Varner were asked to return to court at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Bowersock, 29, was arrested Jan. 29 and charged with lewd and lascivious molestation. He was accused of spanking a 7-year-old girl on her bare bottom.
An arrest report indicated the child told her mother that on more than one occasion when she was the last child on the bus, Bowersock stopped the bus before her stop, pulled down her pants and spanked her with his bare hand.
Following the arrest, it was revealed the Okaloosa County School District had fielded a similar complaint against Bowersock the year before.
I don’t know. Seems like a lot for a 7 year old to just make up.
I’m as much in favor of corporal punishment as the next FReeper, but dropping the pants of another person’s child and smacking them on the buttocks is just a little bit too creepy for my liking...
It is beyond creepy and flat out criminal. The bus driver should not even touch a child, no matter the provocation, when there are no other children around.
This is not about discipline; this is about some creep’s pedophilic fantasy.
And he was still driving a school bus? I hope the parents sue the hell out of that school district.
You’re right, it is creepy. This type of corporal punishment should only be used on girls over 21.
No pervert stranger in today’s sicko society should be permitted to lay a hand on a kid. We have too many wackos out of the closet and doin’ their thing among other people’s children. They have no boundries and many look at kids like sex objects. Look at Montana’s abuse of six year olds in the name of sex education.
We are not in Kansas anymore and had best realize it and protect the kids.
“You’re right, it is creepy. This type of corporal punishment should only be used on girls over 21.”
I met one of those girls once and I barely survived. Crazy doesn’t describe it.
Here’s a question not answered in the report: Were these kids misbehaving in such a way that arguably warranted a spanking?
If they were misbehaving, that leads to another question: Did they know that school bus drivers have no right to spank them—regardless of how naughty they’ve been?
If they did *not* know this, and assumed that it was legitimate for the bus driver to spank them, were they also accustomed to getting spanked at home with their pants pulled down?
If so, is there any chance the driver knew these children were used to being punished that way, and that’s why he chose them to be victims?
Without jumping to conclusions, these possibilities should not be discounted. We know that some parents spank their kids (at least sometimes) on the bare butt to make it hurt more, but this might have the unintended consequence of making them easier targets for a predator like this. That’s because they’re less likely to question having their “bathing suit area” undressed and touched in a punishment situation if that’s what Mom and Dad do.
At the very least, parents need to warn their children that there are adults out there who may have bad reasons for wanting to spank them.
And no one thought that a buscam at the very least might be in order?
Wow I am speechless.
Ping for the ARTH list.
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Dang computer and double posts.
Anyway, I’m pro-spanking, but only from the parents and NEVER bare skin. That indicates intent to hurt beyond what the spanking should be administered for.
This is my school district. One of my church friends was a first grade teacher here - she just had her first baby - and like me had long ago made the decision that never ever ever would her kids be going to this “nice” “safe” district. Or any other.
If I had to send my kids to public school, I would never put them on a bus.
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