The father of a girl who was being bullied on her school bus got on the bus and went on a tirade against the bullies. Now he is telling INSIDE EDITION his side of the story and apologizing for that tirade.
Chatari Jones was a bullying victim, and her father went on a school bus tirade in an effort to protect her.
Now, Chatari and her parents are talking to INSIDE EDITION about the bullying that triggered her father's headline-making rant.
The 12-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy, says she was being repeatedly picked on on her school bus in Orlando.
Chatari told INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander that she was so scared that she couldn't even get on the bus.
"What exactly were they doing to you?" Alexander asks her.
"[They were] poking at me, throwing erasers at me, and then condoms were getting thrown, kids spit in my hair," Chatari says.
Chatari told her parents what was going on. Her father, James, says authorities were notified but failed to act, so he did.
"I was going to protect my daughter," he explains.
One day James got on the bus with his daughter.
"Show me which ones. Show me which ones," he told her.
In a tirade laced with four-letter words, James ripped into the kids he blames for tormenting his daughter.
James was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a school function.
He tells Alexander he had intended just to speak to the driver at first and says he's profoundly sorry he got carried away:
"Im appalled by myself. I was the big bully on that bus. There was no bully bigger than me on that bus."
His wife Deborah has mixed emotions about what happened.
"I was proud of my husband, even though he used the wrong language. But I was proud of him for standing up for her, defending her."
Chatari, who is now being home-schooled, has a message for other kids who are being bullied:
"Just don't be afraid. I don't want any other kid to go through what happened to me."
