Suit: Florida bus aide told student with autism to ‘take it like a man’ in assault

A Palm Beach County school bus leaves a bus compound in August 2016.

Credit: Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post

Credit: Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post

A Palm Beach County school bus leaves a bus compound in August 2016.

Squeezing the boy's neck, twisting his body and driving a fist into his back, a Palm Beach County school bus aide inflicted prolonged pain on a Lantana Elementary School student with autism in 2015, all while admonishing him to "take it like a man," a lawsuit alleges.

The bus aide, Christopher Barker, now 30, was investigated over the incident by school district police, who moved to arrest him on a child abuse charge but, the school district said, were overruled by state prosecutors. Barker was not arrested but resigned in October 2015, days before a vote by the school board to fire him.