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Newport News mom: Cancer survivor son attacked on school bus

Posted at 11:35 PM, Oct 27, 2014
and last updated 2014-10-28 06:12:41-04

Newport News, Va. - In a picture of 13-year-old Christopher Stubaus, his glasses are bent in and one lens is broken. The picture was taken after Christopher says a student on his bus punched him in the eye.

“He wouldn`t stop,” Christopher Stubaus says.

The fight happened a few weeks ago on his way home from Hines Middle School in Newport News. Christopher says he could barely see to walk home from the bus stop.

“I could see the house left and right from me but I couldn`t see that far ahead,” he says.

Without his glasses Christopher is partially blind; his mother, Amanda Stubaus, says he's an eye cancer survivor.

“He has radiation to that eye, he needs those glasses and for this bus driver to just let him…I mean what if a car hit him walking home. I mean anything could happen.”

The most upsetting part, Amanda says, was the bus driver did not help her son. She went to the school to complain and was able to watch bus security footage from that day.

“I saw the video and there`s no way that he did not know what was going on that bus; he should`ve stopped,” she says. “He should`ve pulled over, he should`ve at least asked my child if he was ok when he got off that bus. He did nothing.”

On the video, Amanda says for several minutes her son's aggressor threw his backpack at Christopher over and over again. At one point, Christopher throws it back and that's when he says the boy attacked him.

“It hurt,” he says. “Basically he hit me and the glasses just fell.”

Christopher admits he did fight back to defend himself.

“I mean when you`re pestered, you can only take so much and he retaliated,” Amanda Stubaus says. “He defended himself which I`m proud of him for.”

Newport News Public Schools says the student who hit Christopher was disciplined. A spokesperson says it doesn't appear the driver even saw the fight but the transportation department is investigating. Amanda says she took Christopher out of school; they are moving to Maryland in a few days.