Authorities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are searching for 33-year-old Brittany Banks, the woman seen in a viral video on TikTok violently attacking a Black female bus driver with her older daughter.
According to WAFB, the alarming fight occurred on April 26, shortly after Banks’ teenage daughter got into a heated argument with the driver while the bus was en route to Bradley Street.
The tension came to a boiling point when the bus driver demanded that the student call her mother to escort her off the vehicle due to her disruptive behavior.
When the bus arrived at Bradley Street, the female driver tried to notify Banks about her daughter’s inappropriate behavior, but the conversation quickly turned physical.
In the video, Banks could be seen hitting the driver with a closed fist. During the brawl, her 18-year-old daughter Carlicia Lewis jumped in and began punching the victim.
According to the report, the mother and daughter duo have since been charged with second-degree battery of a school bus driver and contributing to juvenile delinquency.
Police have also arrested and charged a 13-year-old suspect for attacking the driver, but her identity has not been revealed due to her age.
Mayor Pro Tem Lamont Cole says he’s working to improve safety standards for drivers.
WAFB noted that the bus driver was employed by First Student, a company that provides service from a Baton Rouge charter school separate from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.
Baton Rouge is currently experiencing a bus driver shortage. Mayor Pro Tem Lamont Cole told the outlet that he worries the vicious attack video will hinder progress as officials work to solve the growing transportation crisis.
” The incident we saw on that video not only put the bus driver in jeopardy of being harmed and hurt because she was the one attacked, but the children on the bus were also in danger as a result of that behavior,” said Cole, who is also the chief academic officer for CSAL INC Charter Schools.
“What if the bus driver decided to get off the bus, leave, and leave the children alone because she was being attacked? And someone gets on the bus and does something extremely harmful to those children? We have to consider how the decisions we make dictate what happens next.”
Cole wants to help improve safety standards for bus drivers across the Baton Rouge area.
“If we can’t do it locally, I’d ask our legislative folks at the state to do so,” the official added.
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