That former Poudre (POOD-uhr) School District para-professional, accused of being very un-professional, hitting children on the school bus he drove, is now facing dozens of new criminal charges…
(More Charges for Poudre Bus Driver :41)
The District Attorney’s office says it’s found 5 more victims of that man, bringing the total number to 11. Police arrested Tyler Zanella back in May of this year, when the school district found video of him punching children in the head on his bus. Investigators say the students who were hit were autistic, or non-verbal. The number of alleged victims, and the criminal charges, have stacked up greatly since then. Zanella now faces 164 charges of assault, harassment, and child abuse, involving 11 alleged victims. The school district fired Zanella when he was first arrested. The Poudre schools have since added more training for employees who work on buses, but the district didn’t change its policies that led to Zanella being hired in the first place, despite having a misdemeanor child abuse conviction on his record from years before.