School bus shooter avoids custody
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?It was a stupid, foolish, bone-headed thing to do even for an 11-year-old, or at any age,? said General Sessions Judge Larry Ross to young defendant Dustin Sullivan as he sat at the defense table along with his mother and stepfather Monday afternoon. ?I want this boy out washing buses, preferably when it?s cold outside.?
Ross? sentence came after the boy entered a guilty plea to three counts of delinquency to the act of aggravated assault for shooting into two passing school buses in front of his home on McReynolds Road shortly after being let off the bus Oct. 30.
His school bus driver, Douglas Byars, said he had reprimanded Sullivan on the ride home because he suspected he had thrown a pebble at another student on the bus, hitting the boy on the head and leaving a red mark. Weeks before that time, Byars said he had lectured Sullivan and three other boys for ?nitpicking? at each other on the bus.
However, Byars said he stopped short of writing up the boys or taking disciplinary action. Sullivan reportedly told police he shot the buses because he was mad about how his bus driver had scolded him.
Byars went on to testify that he thought he had been bombarded with rocks or shot at when he heard windows on the bus shatter. It was just moments later when a special education bus driven by Carol Foreman also passed by and was shot by Sullivan.
?My aide grabbed her head and yelled that she?d been shot,? Foreman recalled, noting the blast shattered a window where a 4-year-old boy had just been let off the bus. The broken window sprayed her aide with broken glass. ?I got on the radio and told them we were taking fire.?
The aide, Shirley Pease, said she was not badly injured, but that her nerves were shot. She said she is thankful it was not worse.
?I?m just glad it wasn?t a bigger caliber gun or I wouldn?t be sitting here talking right now,? Pease testified.
Assistant district attorney Mark Tribble asked the court to take Sullivan out of his home and place him in state custody.
?He displayed a blatant disregard for the well-being of others and the experts have suggested intensive outpatient treatment, something he would better receive outside his home,? said Tribble, noting the mental evaluation on the youth revealed no mental disease or even a disorder, although he has a difficult family history with a father who is in the penitentiary.
Along with the need for intensive outpatient treatment, the state also pointed out Sullivan?s mother and stepfather did not cooperate with Department of Children?s? Services in compiling their pre-sentence report. Sullivan?s mother maintained she never got the messages to call the agent.
It was also maintained by Pease and Foreman that Sullivan?s stepfather had swerved at them with his car just weeks before, making them think he was trying to intimidate them.
?Anything like this and you?ll be in jail,? Ross warned Sullivan?s parents, noting it will be their responsibility to ensure the boy gets to school, without riding a bus, and that he remains under house arrest.
Along with being on probation, Sullivan will have to undergo anger management classes, make restitution for the damaged buses, and undergo family therapy. The boy, who just turned 12, will also be required to perform 60 hours public service work, most of which Ross wants to consist of cleaning and washing buses.