Chicago Mom Sues the Public Schools Department

A young mother is searching for answers after her son was allegedly tied up on the bus ride home from school.

Complaints originally began into alleged incidents on the bus after Macaulay, a non-verbal 9-year-old boy with autism, struggled to tell his mother what was wrong with him.

“My son, Macaulay, is non-verbal, and he said his hands hurt. Never heard it before,” said Labeth Frye, Macaulay’s mother, to reporters in an emotional video interview.

Frye couldn’t immediately identify what the problem was. On February 20th, 2020, when Macaulay returned from Harvard Elementary, she finally started to unravel what had happened and put everything together.

“He instantly got off the bus and said his hands hurt. Then, as he was coming up the stairs, ‘My hands hurt, hands, hands,’ and so I took a good look at his hands, and I could see marks on his hands,” Frye said.

Frye immediately contacted the school, believing that her son had been tied up on the school bus. The school referred the case to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for additional investigation.

It wasn’t until almost two weeks ago that Frye received news about the investigation. “She got a call on June 23, 2021, saying that the case had been closed and that the bus attendant had been indicated and that the bus attended had been relieved of her duties,” said cannon Lambert, attorney.

Frye is now in the process of suing the bus company, Sunrise Transportation, and Chicago Public Schools in an effort to get hold of the onboard video that might show what happened to her son and for how long it happened.

“I want to see the video. I want to see the video. There’s probably more. He complained about his hand several times. I just want answers for my son,” Frye said.

“While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we are proud of being a leader on safety and committed to the welfare of every child in our care,” said Dave Lundy, Sunrise Transportation spokesperson.

CPS said it does not comment on ongoing litigation.