UTAH COUNTY, Utah — Steve and Annie Zolman’s son was born with a rare birth defect that gave him a low chance of surviving.
“He was in the NICU for 90 days,” said Steve. “He was on life support for 24. It was a real harrowing kind of up-and-down experience.”
Over the years, their mostly nonverbal son has progressively gotten better, but still struggles with breathing.
“We were really excited about getting him into more of a normal setting where he could go to school, and one of those exciting things was riding the bus,” said Steve.
Two years ago, their son, who is an Alpine School District student, came off the bus, traumatized.
“He was really distraught,” said Annie. “He was very upset. He was crying. He was just seemed extremely stressed.”
The parents went to talk to the bus driver about what happened, who told them she had sat on him because their child was ‘misbehaving,’ said Steve.
“The bus driver said, ,’ Yeah, I was restraining at him. I had to sit on him,’” he said.
Horrified, Steve and Annie brought their concerns to the Alpine School District.
“You have a human that's well over four times his size that is leaving all of their weight on him and compressing his chest and making it difficult for him to even breathe normally is, very traumatizing,” said Annie.
The school district finally showed them the security footage from that day, after the district reviewed it first, she said.
“What we saw as far as the verbal abuse and then the escalation to the physical abuse was absolutely traumatizing,” said Annie. “It was very disturbing to see, and it shocks me that anybody would have watched that and said, ‘This is fine.’”
In their lawsuit, the Zolmans argue that the district failed to protect their son from abuse, and by not immediately firing the driver who hurt him, allowed the abuse to continue.
“Our real hope is it that school becomes a place for special needs kids where they can be excited, where they love to go, where they get the same kind of budget that other kids get and the same opportunities to advance, because these kids are some of the most amazing,” said Steve.
Kimberly Bird with the Alpine School District sent the following quote to FOX 13 News:
“The district does not comment on open or ongoing matters of litigation.”
