The family of a 12-year-old boy with special needs who was assaulted by a Lake Orion school bus aide is suing the district and the perpetrator.
The civil lawsuit was filed in Oakland County Circuit Court on Aug. 20, the day after William Thomas Pearson Jr. was sentenced in the same court to 18 months of probation for third-degree child abuse, a charge to which he pleaded no contest last month and which stemmed from an incident last year.
According to the lawsuit, on May 22, 2025, the 12-year-old, identified as "W.W.," a fifth-grader with autism spectrum disorder and other special needs, was riding home from Paint Creek Elementary when he was provoked by another student on the bus. In an attempt to "self-soothe," W.W. began rocking and striking
the seat in front of him with his backpack while continually screaming.
Pearson then came forward from the back of the bus and engaged in an approximately 14-second physical struggle with the boy in which he seized the backpack from him before returning to the rear of the bus.
"Moments later, Defendant Pearson returned and began shouting profanities in the face of W.W., a twelve-year-old special education student, including, 'Are you really (expletive) gonna do this ... You got me (expletive) mad now you little (expletive),' attorneys Michael Weaver and Todd Flood wrote in the lawsuit and provided video to back up their claim.
In that video, filled with blood-curdling screams from the child, Pearson strikes the seat behind W.W. as the student cowers in fear and further screams as Pearson grabs his arm and yanks it backward over the seat behind him, bending it "at an unnatural, disturbing angle."
The lawsuit alleges the district never trained bus staff on the boy’s Individualized Education Program or disability-related behaviors, despite the bus serving special needs students exclusively.
Mark Snyder, director of communications and marketing for Lake Orion Community Schools, wrote in an email that the district does not comment on pending litigation. Pearson is no longer employed with the district, according to the lawsuit and per his sentencing, cannot work with minor children for the duration of his probation.
The family says the boy has suffered lasting psychological trauma since the incident, including near-daily meltdowns and regression in his emotional development.
The suit seeks more than $25,000 in damages.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Former Lake Orion bus aide sentenced for child abuse, district sued
