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Barry Co. Prosecutor not filing charges in bus spanking incident

Posted at 10:27 AM, Jun 01, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-01 10:27:40-04

HASTINGS, Mich. – The Barry County Prosecutor has announced that she will not be issuing criminal charges against a bus driver who allegedly had spanked a child on a bus.

Prosecutor Julie Nakfoor Pratt met with Megan Blake and family Tuesday and informed them of the decision.

Blake called Hastings Police after the May 16 incident when her three kids got off the Barry County Transit bus, which also takes school kids home.  The kids told her that the youngest sibling, a girl in Pre-K, had been spanked by the driver.  Blake called the bus system first to lodge a complaint and then called police.

Police told FOX 17 in May that they were investigating the incident and would forward their findings to the prosecutor’s office.

In Prosecutor Pratt’s press release issued Wednesday, she says that police and parents agree there is a need for cameras on the transit buses and that she also met with the director of the Transit Authority, Bill Voigt, who is also receptive to getting cameras installed.