Suburban school bus driver charged with choking boy who spilled food on bus

A south suburban school bus driver was so upset last week at an 11-year-old boy who wouldn’t clean up spilled food that she sat on him and choked him, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Jessica Robert, 36, is facing a felony charge of aggravated battery in the incident last week in south suburban Floosmoor.

Robert, a mother of three children, was driving the bus when the boy spilled food and refused to clean it up, prosecutors said. As he tried to get off the bus, she pushed him into a seat already filled by two other children.

When he tried to get off the bus again, she pulled him back on, prosecutors said. After a shoving match, Robert pushed the boy into an empty seat, got on top of him and started choking him around the neck with both hands before eventually letting go. The entire incident was caught on surveillance footage on the bus.

The boy had swelling and welts on his neck, though prosecutors weren’t sure if he was treated at a hospital or only at the scene.

Cook County Associate Judge Sophia Atcherson on Saturday set Robert’s bail at $3,000. If she posts the $300 required to be released, Robert isn’t allowed to have any contact with the boy or any other children under the age of 18, except her own children.