A Lake Hamilton School District bus driver was arrested on a felony warrant Tuesday night stemming from accusations she assaulted a 10-year-old student on her bus last month.
Jerica Lynn Morgan, 31, of Hot Springs was taken into custody shortly after 5 p.m. on one count of second-degree battery, punishable by up to six years in prison. She was booked into jail shortly before 6:30 p.m. and had been released on a $10,000 bond shortly before 9 p.m.
Morgan, who lists no prior criminal history, is set to appear Jan. 5 in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on Nov. 21, school district police Chief Richard Huffman was made aware of a complaint from the grandfather of a student, 10, who stated that the day before, the boy was assaulted on a Lake Hamilton bus by the driver, identified as Morgan.
Surveillance video from the bus recorded on Nov. 20 was viewed which had both visual and audio. In the video, the affidavit says, Morgan is heard saying, “Oh (the student’s name), so you don’t care about me?”
Morgan then grabs the student by his hair with her right hand and by the neck with her left hand, the affidavit says. She is then seen “physically putting the juvenile to the floor of the bus,” the affidavit says. Afterward, Morgan let go of the student and returned back to the front of the bus, the affidavit says.
On Dec. 4, the grandfather provided investigators with two photos of the boy that showed a bruise on his left bicep. The grandfather said the injury was a result of the incident on the bus. The photos were taken one week after the incident, the affidavit says.
A warrant for Morgan’s arrest was later issued and was served on Tuesday without incident.
