A woman who allegedly boarded a Decatur school bus last month and had an altercation with the driver who she thought was yelling at her child was arrested Monday and charged with four misdemeanors.

Decatur resident Amanda Michelle Goins, 37, was arrested by Decatur police and booked into the Morgan County Jail at approximately 8:45 a.m. She was charged with assault with bodily fluids, aggravated assault in the third degree (intentional), disorderly conduct, and trespassing on a school bus.

She was released two hours later on a $1,200 bond. The aggravated assault and trespassing charges are Class A misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $6,000.

According to the misdemeanor complaint sworn to by bus driver Thomas Willard Brown, Goins began to walk up the stairs to board the bus on Oct. 19 and he told her she could not do so.

“Brown also attempted to use his body to block the entry on the bus,” according to the affidavit. “Goins insisted that she was going to take her child from the bus and, when her child’s arm was nearby, reached up to grab her child and pull the child from the bus.”

The bus driver continued to try to block her entry, according to the affidavit.

“Goins pulled all three down from the bus. While on the ground, Goins continued to curse at Brown and then spat in his face,” Brown told the magistrate who prepared the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Brown sustained damage to tendons in his foot as a result of the altercation.

The incident occurred at about 3 p.m. Oct. 19 when the driver was dropping students off, according to Deputy Superintendent Dwight Satterfield. According to the affidavit, the incident occurred at a place that was not the child’s normal bus stop, and “multiple children were present for the altercation.”

Satterfield said the incident resulted from a misunderstanding.

“In this situation, the confrontation occurred because Goins thought the bus driver was yelling at her child,” Satterfield said Monday. “He was actually trying to get a car not to go around a stop sign. She was mistaken about what was going on there and mistakenly entered the bus.”

Satterfield said Goins was charged under the Charles “Chuck” Poland Jr. Act, a state law passed in 2013 which forbids individuals from unlawfully entering or interfering with a school bus. The law was named after a Dale County Schools bus driver who was shot and killed by a gunman who boarded his bus and abducted a 5-year-old boy in January 2013.

Satterfield said he has banned Goins from being on any campus at Decatur City Schools.

“If she has to go up to school for something like an academic meeting, that would have to be scheduled and a school resource officer would have to be present,” Satterfield said. “Otherwise, she can’t come on campus to drop off or pick up. She can’t come on any campus for any event.”

— [email protected] or 256-340-2438.

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