School bus monitor charged with 32 counts of child abuse on special needs children

Detectives with the Lake County Sheriff's Office have arrested a school bus monitor on 32 counts of child abuse against four special needs children.

Authorities say the children were under the care of 26-year-old James Charles Brunson, of Eustis, during his bus routes to and from Sorrento Elementary School.

The Sheriff's Office received the report on May 17 after the Department of Children and Families received the initial allegations and opened their case.

Detectives reviewed video from the bus and said hey observed Brunson physically abusing four of the children on the bus, consisting of grabbing victims by the face and forcefully twisting their heads, pulling and twisting their arms, pushing them against the wall of the bus, placing a shoe over one victim's mouth, and stretching one victim's leg up over his head.  The victims range in ages from seven to nine years old.

Brunson was was booked in to the Lake County Detention Center with no bond.