Suit Over School Bus Stop Injury

A Buena Park woman has sued the local school district, alleging that her vision-impaired son, then a kindergartner, was injured after a school bus driver dropped him off at a stop with no supervision.

Allen Collins suffered severe cuts to his face when he ran or was pushed into a sagging chain-link fence near the school bus stop in the 5800 block of Burnham Avenue on April 6, said Patrick Saboorian, the family’s attorney.

“He could not see the fence,” Saboorian said Friday. “He ran against the sharp edge. He either ran into it or was pushed.”

Allen’s mother, Lakesha Jones Tolden, said Friday that her son was attacked by other children. She blamed the school district and its bus driver for allegedly leaving him unattended at the bus stop.

The lawsuit alleges that the driver acted against the district’s policies by leaving the boy unattended.

Marilou Ryder, assistant superintendent of educational services for the Buena Park School District, said district policy is to not drop off a kindergartner unless there is a parent or guardian to pick up the child. But she said school officials could not comment on a pending lawsuit.

Saboorian said Tolden arrived about two or three minutes after the bus dropped Allen off. Saboorian said it was unclear whether the mother arrived late or the bus arrived early. “But the point is, [the driver] should have waited for her.”

According to the attorney, Allen, now 7, has extremely limited vision and could not have seen the fence. The suit also names the alleged owner of the property where the fence is.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages.