CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - A middle schooler said he was attacked by another student when he refused to give up his seat on the school bus.
Eleven-year-old Christian Lozada took a beating after, he said, a student attacked him on the school bus. He has bruises on his arms, forehead and a black eye. “He got up and started hitting me in my face,” Lozada said.
The beating happened as the students were being transported to Forest Glen Middle School on Tuesday. Lozada, who is in the sixth grade, and his sister are some of the first to be picked up for school.
An eighth grader got on the bus at a later stop and demanded Lozada to move so he could sit alone. “He’s like, ‘Get out my seat.’ I said, ‘The bus is moving now and there are no empty seats around,’” Lozada told 7News. “And then he’s like, ‘Well, then you’re going to have to get the finger’ and he started punching me in my arm.”
The 11-year-old said he was held down below the seats and was punched in the arm and face before he was slammed into a window. Lozada’s sister was also hit when she tried to stop the attack. “It was under. It was like this, with the chair over here,” Lozada said touching his forehead.
When the bus arrived at the school, an ambulance was called and Lozada was taken to the hospital. His father, Victor Lozada, got a call shortly after. “I was really afraid. I was shaking,” he said.
The family hired attorney Joshua Hertz. “This is despicable, violent act and there’s nothing that he could have done,” Hertz said. “The school’s supposed to step in and protect him.”
The eighth grader who is accused of beating Lozada was charged with simple battery. Lozada said he doesn’t want him back on the bus. “He should not do this again to somebody because if it happens again, the other person could get hurt worse,” he said.
Coral Springs Police have not released the name of the accused eighth grader since he is a minor, however, he is ordered to appear in court.
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