Bus chaperone allegedly forces cigarettes on 1st grader

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
A bus chaperone allegedly forced cigarettes into the mouth of first grader Arye Balai and then proceeded to curse at him, the boy's uncle, Izazu Balai told The Jerusalem Post late last week. The younger Balai was on his way to the Arazim school in Jerusalem at the beginning of the month when the chaperone suddenly attacked him, Izazu relayed. Arye and his mother are from Jerusalem's Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood. According to his uncle, the bus chaperone forced three cigarettes into Arye's mouth and then cursed at him. He did not attack any of the other kids on the bus, nor was it clear why Arye had been singled out, Izazu said. "It took a few days for Arye to get up the courage to tell his mother what happened," Izazu told the Post. The family has filed a complaint both with the school system and with the police. The Jerusalem Education Authority, which administers schools in the city, confirmed in response to a query from the Post that they were investigating the incident and had asked that the chaperone be suspended until the investigation was concluded. "It is an unusual and serious complaint and the Education Authority began an immediate investigation into the incident. As soon as we received the complaint, we asked the bus company to temporarily suspend the chaperone until the end of the inquiry," it said in a statement. "Authority representatives immediately consulted with the boy's mother and even advised her to file a complaint with the police. "Simultaneously, the authority launched a comprehensive investigation. The bus company, the driver and the chaperone were all approached and have denied the allegation. The principal of the school [Arazim] questioned the children who were on the bus to see if they knew anything, but all of them said they didn't. "At the conclusion of the investigation, it will be decided what steps to take," the statement concluded.