‘It was very scary’: Bus monitor faces attack by student on bus

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A Rochester high school student is accused of throwing punches at a bus monitor.

Bus monitor Sabrina Lantz was on a bus with high schoolers when she says a 17-year-old girl attacked her, giving her a concussion and sending her to the hospital.

“She runs up the bus and pins me against the window, nose to nose, and threatening to kill me face to face –and I’m like, WHOA, I don’t know what’s happening here,” she said.

The student has been charged with harassment and was issued an appearance ticket.

Sabrina Lantz says she just got this job as a bus monitor with Monroe Transportation in May. The company services the Rochester City School District.

While on the bus Friday, something happened that she didn’t see coming. She says what happened in a matter of seconds felt like it would never end.

She typically monitors elementary kids but was asked to ride on the high schoolers’ bus Friday because they needed the extra help and she needed the extra money.

While on the bus, she noticed a girl vaping and asked her to put it away. And that’s when things got ugly.

“I seen her raise her fist, so I instantly went like this and I blocked my face and I put my head down. And she had her phone in her hand and she started whaling on me. And I got this bruise right here, my arm was pretty messed up. My head had swelling and bruises all over it for about two days it hurt, I still have a headache and I have a concussion,” Lantz said.

She says she was defenseless, but when the bus came to a stop at the 1200 block of Lake Avenue, she took matters into her own hands.

“The moment the dispatch said to let me off the bus, the minute she opened the door I was off. I had 911 on the phone already; the moment she got off me I was on the phone with them already. Because you know I was just like I just going to take care of myself for a second and then I just ended up pressing charges when the cops got there,” she said.

She went to the hospital for observation, and remains traumatized.

“It was very scary and it was very traumatic, and I don’t want anybody to go through that. It is terrifying when somebody bigger than you and younger than you is beating on you and you can’t do anything about it,” she said.

Lantz says Monroe Transportation informed her the school district would be calling her, but she hasn’t heard from them yet. News10NBC reached out to the school district as well and didn’t receive a response.