Ann Arbor schools face trial over bus attack on autistic boy

A federal judge has dealt Ann Arbor Public Schools a legal blow by refusing to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the district tried to cover up the bus attack on a boy with autism – an incident that was captured on video and was kept secret from the child’s mother for weeks and landed the abusive bus assistant in prison.

Ann Arbor schools sought to dismiss the lawsuit on several grounds, including governmental immunity. But U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh concluded this week that there was enough evidence to send the case to trial alleging disability discrimination, citing the plaintiff’s claim that the case is “about an attack motivated by hostility against students with disabilities.”