An 18-year-old Georgia high school student is speaking publicly for the first time after a disturbing encounter with school police went viral, showing him being tased, choked, and physically restrained on a school bus, all because administrators believed he was on the wrong bus.
The incident happened outside Banneker High School in South Fulton. What the student says began as a routine ride home quickly spiraled into a confrontation that has since sparked outrage, questions about excessive force, and calls for accountability.
He says everything started when the bus driver insisted he wasn’t supposed to be on board and flagged school administrators.
“As soon as I got on the bus, my bus driver told me I wasn’t supposed to be on the bus,” he recalled. “Administrators got on and just told me to get off. I refused because this is my bus — and even the students were telling them it was my correct bus.”
According to the teen, things escalated rapidly. Administrators cleared the entire bus, then reloaded students, except him. That’s when police were called.
“The officers came on and asked who they were talking about, and the bus driver pointed me out,” he said. “They told me if I didn’t get up, they were going to tase me.”
He says he continued to insist it was his bus. Moments later, the situation turned violent.
“He choked me… then he tased me,” the student said. “Even after I was in handcuffs, he kept slapping me and tried to tase me again.”
He described officers attempting to repeatedly shock him, even while he had his hands raised, and claims administrators eventually had to step in to restrain the officer.
“When they broke it up, he was still trying to attack me,” he said. “Even later, when I was in a room with other officers, he tried to rush me again. They had to pull him away.”
Perhaps most concerning, the student says EMS evaluated him and recommended he be taken to the hospital, but that didn’t happen.
“EMS told them I needed to go to Grady, but they refused,” he said. “I never went to Grady. They took me straight to the police station.”
He was later released with a citation.
Attorneys for the teen say the incident is a clear example of “gratuitous force,” arguing the officers escalated a situation that did not call for violence and ignored medical guidance.
“This wasn’t just a disagreement on a school bus,” his legal team said. “This was force used where there was no threat, no justification, and no need.”
The case remains under investigation, and the video continues to spread across social media, renewing conversations about how school policing intersects with discipline — and whether students, particularly Black teens, are disproportionately subjected to excessive force.
For now, the teen says he’s simply grateful to be alive — but he wants answers, accountability, and change.
“I was just trying to go home,” he said. “I didn’t deserve that.”
