Stamford Advocate
By Monica Potts, Staff Writer
Published 07:49 p.m., Sunday, December 13, 2009
STAMFORD — A Stamford mother who says her then-13-year-old son was taken to a bus driver’s home instead of being dropped off at his own house has filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in Stamford.
The suit, filed last week, says 29-year-old Antonio Wright, a former driver for a company that contracts to operate with Stamford Public Schools to operate the buses, took the Rippowam Middle School student with him to the bus depot in late April 2009 after he completed the bus route, and then took him on an employee shuttle bus and to Wright’s home.
At Wright’s home, the boy and two other children played video games, all without the permission of the boy’s mother, Arva Hylton, the suit says.
Afterward, Wright and the boy exchanged telephone text messages and had at least one telephone call that lasted 27 minutes, the suit states.
“I’m pretty sure they were not talking about student grouping or the bus schedule,” said Hylton’s attorney, Mark Sherman. “Parents need to know how this happened and be assured this is never going to happen again.”
Hylton reported Wright to Stamford police in May, and police applied for an arrest warrant but were rejected, police have said.
The suit, against the bus company, First Student Inc., the Board of Education and the city, claims those entities are responsible for what it says is Wright’s negligent and careless conduct. It also says they were negligent in their supervision of Wright.
Sherman notified the city about the possible suit in September.
Wright was fired at the end of last school year after an investigation by the company that operates buses for the Stamford school system, a company spokeswoman has said.
