POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A mother was taken into custody after she “caused a disturbance” on a Polk County school bus on Monday, according to the sheriff’s office.
In a release, deputies said that the incident happened when the mother — identified as 48-year-old Latanya Rowe — got onto the bus as it stopped to pick up students for Davenport High School.
According to investigators, Rowe began cursing at a student over a separate incident that involved her son and daughter on Friday, Oct. 24.
“Rowe yelled profanities and threats at the student while he recorded her,” the release reads. “She also cursed at the bus driver, accusing him of not ‘handling the situation’ between her kids and the victim.”
Despite the driver’s request, though, Rowe refused to get off the bus until he explained he would be contacting law enforcement, deputies added.
The sheriff’s office revealed that the incident caused the bus to be delayed by around 50 minutes.
Investigators said that deputies later responded to Rowe’s home, where they learned she was actually at the high school.
“The two school resource deputies went to the front office, where they found her cursing, yelling and causing a disturbance,” the release continues. “When the deputies attempted to take her into custody, she resisted.”
Meanwhile, Rowe’s daughter — who was standing nearby — was told several times to get back, but she repeatedly refused and told deputies that she wanted to go to jail, too, deputies said. As a result, the daughter was taken into custody under Florida’s “Halo Law,” which requires a 25-foot buffer zone around first responders in action.
Afterward, deputies began investigating the original dispute between the three students on the bus, learning that Rowe’s son had been bullying the student on the bus for a week and calling the victim racial slurs, the sheriff’s office reported.
“When all three students got off the bus Friday afternoon, the victim attempted to talk to the brother and sister, at which time both suspects punched the victim,” deputies wrote. “The victim fought back until the parties were separated by another student.”
Ultimately, Rowe was arrested and now faces charges of disrupting a school function, trespassing on school grounds, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. She was released on bond of $1,750.
“The irony of this situation is that this woman’s two children were found to be the aggressors in a fight that took place on Friday, yet she was screaming at the victim and accusing the victim of hurting her kids,” Sheriff Grady Judd said. “The victim’s parents declined to press charges and preferred that the school handle that internally, but we are moving forward with charging this mother for her criminal conduct.”