EDWARDSVILLE -- The father of a young Alton boy is suing a school bus company, alleging his son sustained a concussion when he was attacked by older students aboard a private school bus.
Mark Wilkinson, on behalf of his son Craig Wilkinson, filed a suit March 13 in Madison County Circuit Court against North American Central School Bus LLC and Illinois School Bus Central, alleging negligence.
“This is a case where my client was being bullied on the bus to the point you had older children attacking him and possibly hitting his head on a window, causing the concussion he suffered,” attorney Michael Glisson of Williamson, Webster, Falb and Glisson told the Madison County Record of the May 27, 2015, incident.
Craig Wilkinson was six years old at the time of the incident. The suit accuses the bus companies of falling to properly supervise bus passengers, falling to maintain a safe environment for passengers and falling to provide necessary first aid to the victim.
Mark Wilkinson seeks reimbursement for all medical bills and expenses and damages in excess of $50,000 for injuries that included the child's "neck, upper back, back and other parts of his body; pain and suffering, both of body and mind; loss of life and mental anguish.”
Glisson said the family waited as long as they did to formally file suit so they would be able to monitor their son’s condition over the long haul.
“While the incident took place four years ago, we wanted to wait to make sure everything was OK with him,” Glisson said, adding that he tried to settle matters out of court with the bus companies to no avail.
“We sent them a letter seeking to talk things out and reach a settlement, but we couldn’t agree on terms at all,” Glisson said. “We even had to file suit to maybe have a chance to see what actually happened. This may all be on video and they wouldn’t produce any of that for the family before we formally filed suit.”
Glisson said the family seeks a jury trial and he expects for proceedings to start in early 2020.