'You could lose your life': Parents respond to reckless driving after crash involving stolen Kia, school bus

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A week after the driver of a stolen Kia slammed into the back of a school bus, nearly killing one of the kids in the Kia and greatly injuring a boy on the bus, a plea from parents desperate to stop the recklessness. 

It's a group of parents and grandparents trying to reach young people in a way that they'll understand and be receptive to.

Surveillance video and good detective work led Milwaukee police to arrest four teens following the crash outside Morse Middle School. Parents, alerted by an MPS message that day, grew anxious.

"And so, I kept trying to call my son, kept trying to call him and wasn't answering so I was really scared," said Alexias Jones, parent.

Alexias Jones later learned her son was right outside the school's door and saw the Kia hit the school bus hard.

"Heart racing, like, and it's crazy because they have to go to school to learn, but it's crazy that these things are going on at the school," said Jones.

Coincidentally, Jones' grandfather's been fighting the stolen Kia/Hyundai issue for months, both here and in Chicago, showing young people a play the former Kia boys contributed to, and it's seemingly making a difference.

He says one police district went from as high as 65 stolen Kia/Hyundai thefts a month to zero. 

"So, we've done the play at two area schools on the west side of Chicago. It affects the whole community just like Covid did. It's a virus and we got to get to the root cause of that virus," said Rev. Robin Hood, founder of Men Opposed to Violence Everywhere.

Now, Rev. Hood's got clearance to show the play at various Milwaukee Public Schools. 

"So, what they're doing is stopping their lifespan. They could get killed themselves or they could get put out of school. You could lose your life at the age of 10 years old," said Louvenia Hood, with Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere.

The suspected driver in the crash outside Morse School is a 14-year-old boy. Also arrested were two 14-year-old girls and a 15-year-old girl. The only one not able to run from the crash was a 15-year-old boy who remains hospitalized. 

We asked, "How much do you think social media platforms like TikTok are to blame for what's going on?"

"I give them, in this particular thing, I give them 75%," said Rev. Hood.

Rev. Hood's Mothers and Men Opposed to Violence Everywhere plan to start showing the plays at school assemblies in Milwaukee next week. Anything to grab students' attention and not demonize them, but rather help them understand their own lives matter, and what they lose by stealing a car and driving it recklessly could truly cut their lives short.