MONTGOMERY COUNTY (KYW Newsradio) — A 73-year-old former North Penn School District bus aide will spend time behind bars for choking a 6-year-old boy on a bus ride home from school.
MacArthur Wilson of Lansdale is sentenced to five-to-23 months in Montgomery County Correctional Facility on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and strangulation charges.
It happened in Montgomery Township on the bus ride home from school on Oct. 16, 2023. It was recorded on bus surveillance video. Wilson pleaded guilty to the charges about one year later.
Police say Wilson is seen on the school bus video telling the little boy to let go of a seat belt. He is heard saying “Do you want me to choke you out?” before clasping his hands around the child’s throat for several seconds and then letting go.
When the driver yelled at him to stop, Wilson told the driver the boy had hit him and he had to teach the kid a lesson or he would think it’s okay to hit people.
The driver immediately reported the incident to her supervisors.
“He wasn't supposed to be the person that they needed to be protected from,” Prosecutor Caroline Goldstein said. “And all those kids were doing—they were playing around. They were being elementary school kids. They didn't do anything bad or wrong, or anything to warrant any kind of reaction like that.”
At sentencing, the boy’s mother told the court her son is diagnosed with ADHD and possible autism.
She says her son saw other kids playing tug-of-war with a seatbelt and wanted to play, too, so he flung his seatbelt at Wilson, who was sitting next to him on the bus, in hopes Wilson would play. But she says, based on the video, Wilson became enraged, threatened her child, and choked him.
Wilson’s lawyer argued against jail time, saying Wilson has no previous record, he served 20 years in the U.S. Army and had previously been diagnosed with PTSD.