Bus driver scolds South Shore student for speaking English in exchange caught on camera

A South Shore family is fuming after a bus driver told a 12-year-old student to speak French and said it was disrespectful to speak to him in English.

It happened Friday when the driver was taking several children, who are neurodiverse, to school.

Amanda Mullan says her daughter, Maddison Schmidt, lives with autism and ADHD. She attends REACH, the only English-language public school for children with special needs on Montreal's South Shore.

On the commute to school that day, Schmidt says her bus driver was telling the children to speak French.

"It made me feel like I wasn't allowed to speak English, and I really didn't feel comfortable in that situation," said Schmidt.

The 12-year-old says she then started recording what the driver was saying.

"You don't respect me when you don't want to talk to me in my language (…) you're living in a country who (sic) everybody is speaking French, and you don't want to speak French? It's something wrong," the driver can be heard saying in the recording, reviewed by CTV News.

Mullan says she's proud of her daughter for advocating for another child but fears how the exchange impacted her.

"She felt threatened. She felt scared. And when you're putting a child that's special needs in that situation, that can cause so many different levels of trauma," said Mullan.

DRIVER TOLD TO APOLOGIZE

The bus driver is employed by Excell Transport. Riverside School Board says it hired the company to transport neurodiverse children from REACH and other schools.

"As soon as we found out, we contacted the transporter (Excell). Excell took the matter very seriously. They contacted the family rapidly to let them know that they would address the matter with the bus driver immediately," the school board said in a statement.

The response did not reassure Mullan, especially after the driver went on to say he would stop speaking to the students in English.

Mullan says she posted the audio on Facebook to make sure other parents knew about the situation. Both REACH and Excell have asked her to take her post down, she said.

"I didn't throw anyone under the bus. I just wanted my child to know that she has a right to speak English," said Mullan.

In an e-mail to CTV News, an Excell Transport spokesperson said the driver would apologize to the children involved.

"The driver's basic intention was to respect each person's mother tongue and the choice of language in which they choose to express themselves. However, the example and the words used to illustrate his remarks were stronger than desired. So it was out of place," the company said in a statement.

If the same driver picks Schmidt up on Monday, she says she will continue to stick up for English-speaking students.