Paratransit Driver Convicted Of Assaulting Child With Disability

Oct. 6, 2009 - PRLog -- A driver for paratransit service Pat and The Elephant has admitted to assaulting a 14 year old boy with a developmental disability during May of 2009.

Pablo Victor Szerman plead guilty to assaulting the boy, as he left the bus in May, in Prince Edward Island Provincial Court on Tuesday September 29th, 2009 .

A paratransit bus is a minibus or van with wheelchair loading capacity which provides door-to-door transportation on demand of people with disabilities.

The boy has a developmental and physical disability. He cannot control the amount of mucous that collects in his mouth and needs to spit from time to time. He attempted to clear his mouth while leaving the paratransit bus.

Szerman wiped the sputum off the van door and wiped it on the boy’s face saying he was going to teach the boy not to spit.

The event was witnessed by the boy’s sister. The police were called and charges laid.

Valerie Gillespie said her son was traumatized by the event. She asks why the driver is still employed by Pat and the Elephant in the transportation of anyone with a disability.

“I put him in that van and I trusted them to take him there,” said Gillespie in tears on CBC radio. “And take him home safely and treat him with respect.”

Gillespie is calling for the driver to be dismissed from providing care to anyone with a disability.

Gillespie said that she, in her job as a resident care worker, would be fired if she reacted the same way to any of the people in her care. She would not be allowed to continue working in the field if she had a conviction for assault, she added.

Gillespie believes other children and adults with disabilities are at risk from drivers like Szerman who assault people in their care.

Szerman admitted the facts and plead guilty. Judge John Douglas gave him a conditional discharge, six months suspension, instructed him to write a letter of apology to the mother and donate $400 to a children’s disability charity.

Pat and the Elephant continue to employ the convicted driver but only for adults until next Fall. At that time Szerman is scheduled to return to driving children with disabilities said Trent Costello, manager of Pat and the Elephant.

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