Mom Was Shocked When Nonverbal Son Came Home with Bruises — Then Learned He Wasn't Bus Aide's Only Victim By Sean Neumann

A former school bus aide in Colorado pleaded guilty this week to assaulting multiple nonverbal children with autism two years ago, authorities said.

Former Littleton Public Schools aide Kiarra Jones pleaded guilty to 10 felony charges of third-degree assault of an at-risk child and two misdemeanor charges of child abuse on Monday, the Office of the District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District in Arapahoe County announced in a statement.

The statement said “a criminal investigation was launched after a parent of a nonverbal boy with autism said her son came home with bruises on his foot that were not there the previous day” and asked the school to show her surveillance video from the bus’s security camera.

“The director reviewed footage and discovered the boy had been physically assaulted on the bus by Jones,” the statement said. “Further review of bus security footage revealed Jones assaulted the same nonverbal student on multiple occasions dating back to February 2024.”

Jones, 30, was accused by authorities of assaulting three nonverbal students who have autism. 

“Jones’s underlying assaults were not just criminal, they were cruel,” the attorneys for family members who had students impacted by Jones’s assault said in a statement to PEOPLE on Tuesday.

“What was done to our son was not a mistake, not a lapse in judgment, and not an accident. It was blatant, cruel, and carried out without an ounce of humanity,” the parents of one child said in an additional statement provided to PEOPLE by their attorneys. “No guilty plea, no sentence, and no amount of time will ever be enough to account for the pain she caused our son and the damage she inflicted on our family. We cannot imagine she feels the severity of her actions as she has been free to live her life as if nothing has happened and will continue to do so for the next couple months, but we pray that it is beginning to set in for her.”

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The former school aide initially pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and was set to face a five-day criminal trial starting this week before she reached the plea deal with prosecutors on Monday.

“These children could not speak for themselves, and it was our duty to stand up for them,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Gallo said, according to the district attorney’s office’s statement. “Today’s guilty plea ensures accountability while allowing the court to impose a sentence that reflects the seriousness of the crimes.”

Jones is set to be sentenced on March 18 and faces up to 15 years in prison, the district attorney’s office said in its statement.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.