Bus driver suspected to have encouraged fight between middle school students in Warrenton
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WARRENTON, Oregon (KPTV) — A Clatsop County school bus driver is off the job and facing charges after investigators said a fight between students broke out on the bus he was driving. Instead of intervening, he is alleged to have encouraged the violence.
“You should never let children fight while in your presence,” said Lindsay, who personally knows the suspect, 56-year-old James Pottschmidt. “Any person with a brain would take issue to that. You’re the only adult on that bus and if you’re not going to stop it then who is?”
Lindsay said when she had interacted with the suspect in the past he came across as a “good man.”
“I was extremely shocked and surprised,” she said. “It was slightly mind-blowing.”
Lindsay said news of Pottschmidt’s alleged involvement with a middle-schooler being beaten up, bruised, and sustaining a concussion spread like wildfire through her small town.
“As a mother, I would not be comfortable with my kid being in that position. They see our kids five days out of the seven days a week,” she said. “If we can’t get our kids to and from school, how can we expect that when they’re at school things are going to be well-managed.”
Lindsay said she believed the fight on the bus was recorded and that it was seen by the mother of one of the students.
“Watching her kid get beat up for 17 minutes with adult supervision would tear me up,” she said.
As a mother herself with children in kindergarten and third grade, Lindsay said if it’s true that Pottschmidt encouraged the children to fight rather than stop it, it’s especially concerning.
“It’s your responsibility as the adult and bus driver to make sure those things aren’t happening on your bus. To encourage that is sickening because those are children.”
The school district said Pottschmidt is no longer employed by them.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on April 23.
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