11-Year-Old Student Records School Driver Verbally Abusing, Attacking Him: 'Answer Me Before I Hurt You'

A school van driver was caught on camera verbally abusing and grabbing an 11-year-old student after the student documented the incident on his phone.

On Tuesday, Z'Kai Jackson was on a van with other Point Quest Education students, playing with an iPad, when the driver told them to put the device away. Point Quest Education is a private school in Sacramento, California, that caters to special education students with challenging cognitive, behavioral and emotional needs.

When the students ignored the driver's request, he yelled at Jackson: "You're acting like, 'Hey I'm not around them, so I can act however the f**k I want I want.'"

Jackson tells him that's not the case, to which the driver responds, "Yes you are!"

The driver, who had pulled the vehicle over, is then heard in the recording telling Jackson, "So, I got to call your parents every f**king time I got to tell you something? That's the only motherf**ker who can tell you some s**t? Your parents?"

At one point, the young student tells the driver, "You don't have to cuss at me like that."

"Then you don't have to f**king misbehave in front of me like that!" the driver replies.

As the situation escalates, the driver begins repeatedly shouting at Jackson, "Say one more f**king thing" and "shut the f**k up" before getting physical and grabbing the boy.

Later that day, the school called Jackson's grandmother about the altercation.

"I was disturbed, I was truly disturbed. I was upset. I couldn't even focus at work," Wanda Jackson told KTXL-TV.

She added that the drivers who work for Point Quest are also behavioral aides, "so that's supposed to help them with their behavior."

Jackson's grandmother said the part that concerned her the most was when the driver told her grandson, "You better answer me before I hurt you." She said she was shocked the exchange became so heated, especially since they had known the driver for the last three years.

Jackson said he was thankful he took out his cellphone to document the altercation.

"If I didn't record, I will be in trouble; and they'll say I did it, and I didn't do it. So I just put it on record," the 11-year-old told the local outlet.

In a statement to Newsweek, Point Quest said that the driver has been fired and that the school is investigating what happened.

"Point Quest is aware of an incident involving the unacceptable verbal abuse of a student by an employee van driver," Elena Levin, Point Quest's director, wrote.

"Our investigation is ongoing, but the employee has been terminated and we are consulting with the student's family to ensure the student is given access to necessary services to ensure their emotional and educational well-being," Levin continued. "The terminated employee's behavior violated standards of common sense and decency as well as the specific de-escalation skills that all our employees are trained to employ."

This story was updated with comments from Elena Levin, Point Quest's director.