North Penn School District bus aide choked a 6-year-old student to ‘teach him a lesson,’ police say
Macarthur Wilson was seen on surveillance footage asking the boy "Do you want me to choke you out?" multiple times before wrapping his left hand around his throat and squeezing, police said.
A school bus aide in Lansdale choked a 6-year-old boy, saying he needed to teach the child a lesson, prosecutors in Montgomery County said Thursday.
Macarthur Wilson, 72, was charged with strangulation, simple assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. The episode allegedly took place Oct. 16 as he rode a North Penn School District bus with the victim. Wilson was released on $5,000 unsecured bail. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
» READ MORE: A former North Penn School District maintenance man pleaded guilty for his role in a fatal hit-and-run
Investigators first learned of the alleged assault from the victim’s father, who said his son had come home “visibly distressed” with red marks and scratches around his neck, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Wilson’s arrest.
In an interview with police later that day, the bus driver said she had asked Wilson to sit with the boy, who has been diagnosed with ADHD, until he was dropped off, the affidavit said.
During the ride, she said she saw Wilson struggling with the child’s seat belt as she looked through the vehicle’s rearview mirror. At one point, Wilson placed his hands around the boy’s neck for between five and eight seconds, and she yelled at him to stop, according to the affidavit.
» READ MORE: North Penn School District says it was ‘unacceptable’ for a teacher to tape a mask to a student’s face
She told police that Wilson said the boy had hit him and that he “had to teach him a lesson or he would think it was acceptable to continue to do.”
Later, the affidavit said, detectives reviewed video surveillance from the bus, and it showed Wilson struggling with the boy to get him to let go of his seatbelt. In the footage, Wilson repeatedly asks: “Do you want me to choke you out?” before wrapping his left hand around the boy’s neck and squeezing it for seven seconds.
Wilson is scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Judge Andrea Hudak Duffy on Jan. 9.